Adventist group avails US$230 000 for emerging businesses
ADVENTIST Laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) Zimbabwe West Union Conference chapter has availed a US$230 000 revolving fund which is meant to assist emerging businesses to boost their projects in a bid to promote reasonable contribution towards mission projects.
ASI is a membership-based organisation of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) laypeople who are enthusiastic about actively participating in the church’s worldwide mission.
This unique and diverse group of members ranges from business owners to individual professionals to supporting ministries.
SMEs have become a major pillar of the economy and are expected to aid the growth of exports to US$14 billion per annum by 2030.
This has seen the Government and development partners coming up with different initiatives which are meant to provide financial and technical support to the sector.
In an interview during the launch of the fund in Bulawayo on Friday, ASI Zimbabwe West Union Conference Chapter finance director Mr Alson Bhebhe said the ASI association is meant to help the church fund mission programmes which includes building of hospitals and schools.
He, therefore, said the offering is not enough to support the activities, which has seen business people come upfront to fundraise to help the church.
However, he said due to economic challenges, people in Zimbabwe do not have capital, which has seen them coming up with an idea to bring sustainable initiatives to fund ideas and businesses, which people have.
“We have business people who have brilliant ideas, but they are not able to sustain their programmes, because of the business environment, so what we have done, we have put resources together, came up with a revolving fund, currently it sits at US$230 000,” said Mr Bhebhe.
“This revolving fund is going to be given to our members so that they can use it to boost their businesses. We believe, if they boost their businesses, they become profitable then they are going to return that part of the money into supporting mission projects for the church.”
SDA partakes in different infrastructure development initiatives, which include building schools, hospitals, universities amongst other projects.
ASI Zimbabwe West Union Conference Chapter has so far assisted in building schools in Mberengwa and Nkayi, where they said this is the reason behind the need to improve streams of income so as to do more of these projects.
Mr Bhebhe, said the launched revolving fund is available throughout the country with each conference, which are the Zimbabwean East, Central and West Union Conference which covers the Southern region rolling out the same amount of the fund.
The funds are going to be rolled out through the church structure where the union chapter will go to districts and local churches and form small chapters where members will then bring in their proposals where a committee will assess and evaluate them.
Then the selected will be taken to a boot camp where they go through rigorous training to help them be able to run their projects in a manner which will allow them to pay back the fund.
The chapter also introduces business incubation for startups where they will help them to start their businesses, open and set up their projects and when they are ready, they are given the funds to start their projects.
Mr Bhebhe said one of the ASI members is one of the shareholders at ZB Bank, therefore it has become strategic for them to partner with the bank in rolling out this programme.
Adding to what the finance director said, ASI Zimbabwe West Union Conference Chapter president Advocate Dumisa Dube said he wishes to grow this fund to a million dollar initiative.
“I appreciate that not all businesses will be able to benefit from this fund which is meant for small businesses.
“We have people who have medium and large-scale businesses that need more money so I wish that like-minded entities come together and grow the fund to million dollars or more,” he said.
Commenting on the fund during the launch, Beitbridge businessman, who is also a member of SDA, Mr Maxwell Ngwenya said funds of this nature are welcome in the region saying that this will help to boost local SMEs who will then create employment and unveil huge opportunities for youths.
He, however, urged the chapter to come up with programmes such as mentorship, training and incubation for the beneficiaries of the funds so that their businesses won’t fail, which will hinder them to pay back the money.
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