Staff Reporter
The current African Union Commission Chairperson’s youth Envoy Ms. Chido C Mpempa has commended ZimTrade for making strides during these trying times.
The Youth Envoy who assumed office early this year and who hails from Zimbabwe urged ZimTrade to keep nurturing small businesses and include the youths in its programs. Mpemba was speaking during a two-day exporter’s conference held at Meikles Hotel in Harare recently.
“I would want to thank The ZimTrade for the remarkable job they are doing in helping to grow small businesses and the help they are affording the youth
“As the Youth Envoy am quite impressed by the number of startups and SMEs run by the youth. We will continue to lobby the policymakers to practice leniency towards youths as some of the money required to register businesses and certify their products is way beyond their reach,” Mpemba elaborated.
She also implored African policymakers to treat the youth as economic players of today, not of the future only.
“Our youth are not only the future but the present as well, so they should be included in all business and economic activities. Policymakers should put in place measures that cushion them.
“Young people are disadvantaged as even banks see them as a risk in terms of giving them loans as a result it is hard for them to enter into business,” bemoaned Mpemba.
This year’s conference drew buyers from Switzerland, England, Ghana, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia who maintained and assured Zimbabwean exporters that they are in dire need of their goods.
ZimTrade assists Zimbabwean exporters, including first-time exporters and potential exporters, to develop, promote and facilitate the export of their goods and services to the world and they have been in existence since 1991.
