By Patience Rashai

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce have plans afoot to roll out micro-business loans and business training aimed at empowering war veterans to contribute significantly to the fiscus.

The ministry together with the National Business Council of Zimbabwe (NBCZ) says this initiative is aimed at addressing the business plight of many war vets who have had a false start in businesses due to lack of capital or business skills.

“Very little has been done to integrate war vets into the formal economy. Guided by section 23 of the Constitution, war vets are set to be assimilated in all sectors of Government.

“NBCZ together with the line ministry came up with a comprehensive package to train war vets in business skills at district level, before taking it up to national level,” said the ministry.

The package which will be a partnership between NBCZ, and RBZ’s subsidiary, Homelink, will see war vets accessing a minimum of $50 000 as loans for their business projects. The ministry will also aid in facilitating the businesses’ formalisation processes.

If successfully implemented, the businesses and or projects will see the establishment of at least two war vets projects in each of the country’s ten provinces.