By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Zambia State Insurance Corporation (ZSIC) is planning to set up a micro-finance company to cater for small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) needs.
ZSIC managing director George Silutongwe said the firm was working on a strategic plan for a period 2015 to 2017, with the view of studying the plight of the SMEs in the country.
“We have on our table plans to set up a micro finance company for the purpose of supporting SMEs,” he said in an interview at the on-going Agricultural and Commercial Show in Lusaka.
Mr Silutongwe explained the corporation had a few years ago withdrawn its support towards the SMEs due to poor governance and various businesses ranging from medium to small were also not catered for.
He said that ZSIC was trying to see if that could be revisited so that the SMEs could also be offered various insurance products.
“We are reviewing the old strategic plan to see what happened. So going forward, we are working on the new strategic plan which will run from 2015 to 2017 or 2019 because we are yet to decide whether it runs for three or five years,” he said.
The corporation was currently reviewing the current strategic plan in which it withdrew SME support due to governance issues.