Minister orders Gwanda to suspend licences of vendors

THE Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development, Sithembiso Nyoni, has ordered the Municipality of Gwanda to suspend licences of vendors who stay more than three years on the streets without any sign of improving their business in an effort to encourage effectiveness of the sector.

Speaking at a meeting with SMEs and council officials in Gwanda yesterday, Nyoni said SMEs were the backbone of the economy hence needed to improve their businesses in order to grow into big companies.

"Although SMEs are the backbone of the country's economy, they must not stay small for so long, the older ones should graduate to bigger businesses and allow the new ones to come in. There is nobody in my ministry who must stay for more than three years, they should improve so that they don't dwell and develop a street vending syndrome without any progress," she said.

"I urge the town council to unregister every vendor who stays for more than three years without improvement and suspend their licenses. In my ministry I don't want vendors for life because it creates poverty. What we want is value edition, go to the Polytechnic as people of Gwanda and get skills so that you operate your businesses with knowledge and vision. Don't stay as SMEs for long because the big ones, more so foreign, will come and invest in your space of trading while you are watching. SMEs mustn't be a permanent name."

Nyoni added that the town council should provide stands for the small businesses, even vendors with adequate facilities such as water and ablution facilities.