THE government in collaboration with Japan and CRDB Bank has established Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Credit Guarantee Schemes worth 2bn/- to help entrepreneurs, including women access loans to improve their economic activities.
The Minister for Industries, Trade and
Investment, Charles Mwijage told the House that the move was one of the
measures to empower entrepreneurs in the country.
Mr Mwijage was responding to Dr
Christine Ishengoma (Special Seats CCM) who had wanted to know
initiatives taken by the government to empower women entrepreneurs by
loaning and assuring
them of reliable market.
Dr Ishengoma noted that a number of
women especially in Morogoro Region dealing with fruits processing were
lacking enough capital and reliable market thus making their activities
less paying.
Mr Mwijage told MP’s here that the
government through his Ministry had on several times been facilitating
women entrepreneurs to participate in various trade exhibitions in Dar
es Salaam commonly known as Sabasaba and other Regional trade shows.
“We are implementing various strategies
like training entrepreneurs on standards and quality and ensuring that
they obtain Tanzania Bureau Standard (TBS), Mark, traceability and
barcodes through GS 1,” he noted.
The Minister said that SME Credit
Guarantee Schemes has already started operation in seven
Regions--Arusha, Mbeya, Dodoma, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Morogoro and
Singida.
“We are planning to reach other Regions
as much as the scheme grows,” he said, adding that the aim is ensuring
that big number of women entrepreneurs is reached in the country.
He pointed out that the government was
also taking various initiatives to improve National Entrepreneurship
Development Fund (NEDF), to make it serve more entrepreneurs.
As of now, he said that the Fund has
already increased amount that an entrepreneur can acquire as loan from
500,000/- to 2.5m/- and from 2.5m/- to 5m/- depending on the
entrepreneurs’ financial muscles.
“The government is in final touches as
it works on a plan that would enable various entrepreneurship groups and
cooperative unions dealing with fruits processing acquire loans from
Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank,” he said.
He added; “Small Industries Development
Organization (SIDO), is also conducting training to entrepreneurs on how
to improve their activities and meet both national and international
standards.”
The Minister advised entrepreneurs to
ensure that they form groups and focus on quality and standards so that
their products can compete in the market.
On the other hand, Minister Mwijage said
that the government will in 2016/2017, financial year allocate budget
for compensating Makambo residents in Njombe Region to give site for
construction of international market in the area.
He noted that currently, valuation process was going on to establish exact amount of money needed to pay off the residents.
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