THE Matobo District Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) One Stop Shop has seen some changes after the mushrooming of retail outlets within the premises, which has raised concern that it was no longer serving its purpose.
Ward 19 Councillor Nqobizitha Ngwenya said the One Stop Shop was no longer serving its intended purposes since the beneficiaries now included people who do not fall under the category of women and youths.
He also highlighted that the stands that were mushrooming within the premises are pegged haphazardly and were fully fledged businesses that are focusing on retail whilst it was meant for production.
“We need the allocation of the stands to be orderly and licensed since these are fully fledged businesses which are competing with regular shops and retailing same products” he said.
The (SME) One Stop Shop was allocated by the Matobo RDC to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprisesand was set up to incubate small businesses for women and youths so that they could grow.
In this arrangement, the one stop shop was designed to eliminate tax burdens and licenses for small businesses for a period of five years.
However, after the recent mushrooming of retail businesses within the premises, which are pegged without following any standard, the issue has been brought to the attention of the local authority.
“We believe that the One Stop Shop has served it’s purpose since the stipulated time frame for the beneficiaries of those premises has lapsed and the businesses utilizing the space have to be licenced” the Matobo RDC stated.
The local authority also said there is a need for the business activities being conducted within the premises to be recorded, the business type and the number of beneficiaries. The One Stop Shop has an area that has not been utilised which has vending bays which could have been occupied by these retail businesses, however, it means they will continue lying idle as they remain unoccupied.
