MICROFINANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY:

Economists, development experts, scholars and politicians regard the small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) sector as the engine for future growth that can greatly contribute to mainstream economies in terms of generating wealth, creating additional employment opportunities, nurturing entrepreneurship skills vital for innovation and meeting the increased demand through bridging the production gaps in a lot of less developed countries. Zimbabwe as a developing country is also benefiting from the contribution of the SME sector to its economic growth and wealth creation due to the lack of foreign direct investment as a result a prolonged economic and political crisis. This research was carried out in one of the oldest suburbs in Zimbabwe, Mucheke. Zimbabwe is located on the southern part of Africa and is currently undergoing an economic revival with official inflation figures reaching 231,000,000% at the peak of the crisis, the highest recorded in history. This also affected the value of the amounts of loans borrowed drastically. The research was carried out during the period between the use of the local currency and the official use of multicurrency.

Autorentext

Austin Ngindi is a recent graduate of the Masters in Development Management Programme of the Ruhr University of Germany's IEE Institute Centre of Excellence Cape Town pioneer Group. He also holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Zimbabwe Open University and a BSc Honours in Agriculture Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.