by Patience Rashai
The launch of the National Venture Capital Fund (NVCF) has been earmarked for April as Government steps up efforts to capacitate good entrepreneurship and innovation by SMEs.
Addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation; Permanent Secretary for Finance and Economic Development, , George Guvamatanga, said that plans to see through the launch are at an advanced stage.
“The Steering Committee has been meeting, at least once weekly, to deliberate on progress and agree on the next steps to be implemented and has since developed a comprehensive business case for the establishment of the National Venture Capital Company, which is expected to be launched by April,” he said.
Detailing on some of the progress made so far, Guvamatanga said, efforts have been put in place to identify possible fund managers and partners for the fund.
“Various meetings have already been held with Empowerment Bank, Women’s Banks and Smedco, CBZ, Finsec, and Norfund to identify possible fund managers and partners.”
Government has also approached an arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) over possible financial injection into the National Venture Capital Fund. IFC advisory and asset-management services encourages private-sector development in less developed countries.
“A tele-meeting was held with the IFC where technical support was requested. Discussions are also underway on the possibility of considering IFC as a potential investor. The IFC can come and invest in the company or it can be a fund manager and can take shares directly in the investee companies in partnership with the National Venture Capital Company,” he added.
To see through the success of this fund, Government unveiled a fiscal incentive to support employers who generate new jobs for young people. Any additional job created qualifies for a tax credit to the employer equivalent to ZWL$500 per employee, thus reducing the cost of hiring young people.
At least ZW$500 million was also set aside by Treasury for the establishment of a NVCF to finance start-up projects by youths.
In addition, Government set aside resources in the 2020 budget to capitalise entities such as Empower Bank (ZW$50m),The Women’s Micro Finance Bank (ZW$100m) and SMEDCO (ZW$90m) ,the Women Development Fund (ZW$20m), and the Community Development Fund (ZW$15m) where young Zimbabweans qualify for assistance under all these funds.
Under the NVC Government will prioritise projects that have a capacity to yield meaningful impact on the economy through technological innovation, sustainable job creation; import substitution; forex generation and export growth; promoting women and youth entrepreneurship; and projects outside the big cities (Economic Growth Nodes).
