The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe (SMEAZ) is working on a confex that will bring together stakeholders in the SME funding and financial services sector.
The event, which is slated for 21 and 22 April at the Rainbow Towers Hotel and Conference Centre in Harare, will comprise a conference and an exhibition.
“The inaugural event will be held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel. It will feature two main components: an exhibition where providers of financial services will be able to interface with visitors over the course of the two days, as well as plenary sessions which will be held over the two days to discuss various aspects of funding and financial inclusion,” said the association in an evet statement issued last week.
SMEAZ explained that the exhibition section would comprise stands offered to the different financial services providers and institutions in the SME funding ecosphere, where they would be able to interface with visitors to the exhibition as well as hold meetings with specific SMEs by appointment to better understand their needs. Attendance to the exhibition will be free for SMEs wishing to interface with service providers.
Some of the sectors that are expected to exhibit at the show include banks, MFIs bureaux de change, development finance institutions, NGOs, venture capital and private equity players among others.
Although the association did not disclose the identities of the conference speakers, it indicated that these would include representatives from relevant stakeholder institutions such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) among others.
“We have confirmed attendance from the RBZ, and (we) are in the process of confirming attendance from the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and SME Development, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development as well as the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation. Other keynote speakers will come from the private sector, specifically from organisations and institutions that have a bearing on SME funding and financial inclusion,” SMEAZ said.