Youth and women in the Small to Medium Enterprises industry are set to benefit from a fund meant to cushion and boost their businesses. This was revealed "Small and Medium Enterprises will play a key role in development and servicing of a thriving development economic zone. Cognizant of the role played by small and medium enterprises and the need to stimulate long term economic growth and higher levels of productivity, the government established a ZW$500 million National Venture Capital Fund," President Mnangagwa said. "The Fund aims to encourage sound entrepreneurship and innovation "The fund will support all commercially viable projects across all economic sectors based on the following attributes: job creation, import substitution, forex generation and export growth, promotion of women and youth entrepreurship and the promotion of investments and projects outside big cities." Many economies that have supported SMEs have reaped huge benefits from it through their immense contribution to economic growth. SMEs in other countries contribute significantly to the economic growth of their country.