VNc#1626: Markets, Not Mercy
By Victor PM Nyasulu
One of the greatest mistakes that governments, financiers and even MSMEs themselves can make is to confuse economic empowerment with economic charity.
The future of Zambia’s indigenous Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (i-MSMEs) will not be secured by sympathy, speeches or occasional empowerment grants. It will be secured by something far more important: markets.
Businesses do not survive because they are loved. They survive because they consistently sell products and services to willing buyers.
In business language, revenue comes before profit and profit comes before sustainability. Consequently, any serious discussion about MSME development must ultimately answer one question: “Who will buy from them?”
It is encouraging that successive governments have increasingly acknowledged the strategic importance of MSMEs. Studies continue to show that MSMEs account for the overwhelming majority of enterprises in Zambia and contribute significantly to employment and economic activity. Yet despite this reality, many indigenous enterprises remain trapped in low-value and highly informal economic activities. (ccpc.org.zm)
The challenge is not merely access to finance. In fact, financing without markets can be dangerous. A loan given to an enterprise without a reliable customer base simply accelerates its collapse. Capital follows opportunity; opportunity follows markets.
This is why Zambia must increasingly focus on market access as a national economic priority.
Every major public institution should deliberately examine its procurement systems. Every large mining company should assess how much of its supply chain genuinely benefits local enterprises. Every multinational operating in Zambia should ask how many indigenous firms are being integrated into their value chains.
The objective is not protectionism. The objective is participation.
A nation cannot claim economic sovereignty if its citizens remain spectators in the most lucrative sectors of their own economy.
Consider the mining sector. Zambia has been associated with copper for almost a century. Yet indigenous participation in major mining value chains remains disproportionately low. The same observation can be made in manufacturing, logistics, technology and large-scale construction.
The real empowerment agenda must therefore move beyond giving people fish and even beyond teaching them how to fish. We must secure access to the fishing grounds.
Markets create discipline. Markets create innovation. Markets create jobs. Markets create wealth.
An MSME with a guaranteed market quickly learns quality control, customer service, financial management and operational efficiency because survival depends on performance. By contrast, an MSME surviving on perpetual subsidies often develops dependence instead of competitiveness.
As Zambia approaches another important phase of national development, policymakers must remember a simple principle: markets are more powerful than mercy.
What indigenous enterprises need most is not endless sympathy but fair opportunities to compete, supply, produce and grow.
If we get market access right, capital will follow. Jobs will follow. Tax revenues will follow. Ultimately, improved Human Development Index outcomes will follow.
The future of Zambia’s economy will not be determined by how many MSMEs exist on paper. It will be determined by how many indigenous enterprises successfully transition from survival to significance, from significance to scale, and from scale to legacy.
That journey begins with markets, not mercy.
