BULAWAYO vendors have pleaded with insurance companies to avail schemes to insure their wares which are often confiscated by municipal police.
Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association executive director Michael Ndiweni said it was important that small and medium enterprises are insured.
“Insurance is very important for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the event of accidents like what happened in Espamprekini in Mpopoma where people lost everything (to a fire outbreak) because their goods were not insured,” Ndiweni said.
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury.
It is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.
Ndiweni urged insurance companies to come up with insurance schemes that also cater for SMEs.
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“We are doing advocacy for SMEs to be granted insurance packages. We have also raised this issue to the government during budget consultations for 2023.
“We also engaged the government on policy because it should come from government policy for it to be responsive to the traders,” he said.
Unity Village flea market in Bulawayo was gutted by fire and business owners suffered huge losses. It is the same case with what recently transpired in Mpopoma at Espamprekini Entrepreneurship Incubation Centre after an inferno destroyed properties.
“Vendors need insurance because they lose goods and I also compel property owners to have their goods insured so that their tenants also follow suit and ensure their goods,” Ndiweni added.
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