Published: 16 January 2014

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Wednesday criticised local banks for failing to come up with innovative strategies to tap into the informal sector, which is now driving the economy.

Addressing delegates at the Mandel/ Gibs 2014 Economic Outlook Symposium, Chinamasa said the reality of the Zimbabwean economy was that the informal market was now the dominant force.

"Your (formal) market is no longer there and you are ignoring them (informal market) completely, not any effort to see how you can service them, use them for mutual benefit. Learn how to deal with the small man. You sit until you probably also collapse," he said.

Chinamasa said there were more economically active people in the informal sector than there were in the formal sector.

"How can we tap value from the informal sector? They are not contributing value to the fiscus. There are no linkages between the formal and informal sector," he said.

- New Ziana

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