. Wina

By JAMES KUNDA –
VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina has implored insurers to help marketeers insure their property to avert probable losses from unforeseen calamities such as the recent fire that gutted the City Market in Lusaka.
Ms Wina said marketeers countrywide were vulnerable without insurance schemes, leaving the Government to bear the burden of supporting them when calamity struck.
The Vice-President said this in Lusaka yesterday when she received a K100,000 cheque from Barclays Bank  Zambia as the institution’s contribution towards the rebuilding of City Market.
The K100,000 from Barclays has raised to K 12,689,500 the cash and pledges that the Government has received from well-wishers towards rebuilding of the market.
Ms Wina commended the bank for the gesture and urged the institution to enhance financial inclusion in its entrepreneurial development programmes.
She said the partnership between Government and institutions such as Barclays Bank was key in the development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
“We are delighted that the corporate world is on board as we seek to rebuild a resilient market that will sustain the livelihood of our people,” Ms Wina said. “Markets are the centre lines of entrepreneurship for our people.”
Handing over the cheque to Ms Wina, Barclays Bank Board chairperson Chishala Kateka said her institution was keen on supporting the Government’s ‘building back better campaign’ for markets to better the welfare of SMEs.
Ms Kateka, who was in the company of the bank’s managing director Mizinga Melu and head of marketing and corporate relations Malo Shimabale, said SMEs were vital in the country’s social and economic growth.