By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –
Local Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) are expected to benefit from the K200 million Madison Finance Company is projected to roll out this year.
Madison Finance managing director Ken Simwaba said the company intends to grow its loan portfolio to K200 million by the end of the year to support the SMEs in the country.
Mr Simwaba said the company has so far disbursed a total of K160 million to the local SMEs and projects to grow the loan portfolio further.
“Our current portfolio is sitting at K160 million and we project to grow to K200 million by the end of 2014 to support to SMEs.We started at a micro level and we are now supporting micro groups and individuals,” he said.
Mr Simwaba said his firm was committed to providing loans to the low income earners, saying that most of the market segments are those that can’t access funding from the commercial banks.
SMEs are the engine for economic growth and that,  most developing economies including Zambia’s  were  driven by the
SMEs.
Mr Simwaba said empowering the SMEs sector was important as they would help alleviate poverty in the country.
He said the company was aware that the Government had identified SMEs and  the private sector to partner with
the Government in realising the objective of growing SMEs.
“We will be introducing a savings product this year and at the moment we have over 30,000 clients and we are looking at growing that portfolio to 40,000 by next year,” Mr Simwaba said.
Madison Finance has 17 branches across the country with presence in Lusaka, Copperbelt, North-western, Northern, Luapula, Eastern and Southern provinces and plans are underway to open in Mongu and Muchinga provinces.