Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) funded Sizimele Consortium, developed and launched a mobile application called Sizimele, a digital marketplace for food, agricultural and related supplies that is tailor-made to keep informal traders and buyers in close contact.
Speaking to Special Edition Vendors Voice, Sizimele Application ambassador Lisa Ncube said, “Knowledge is a priceless commodity that ZRBF Sizimele is dedicated to share with informal traders unceasingly through various online platforms, hence it was a pleasure for me to be part and parcel of the application testing that will see informal traders operating their business via the online space”.
“The Sizimele Application which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store offers 30 percent offline services and 70 percent online services. By reason of this application buyers and sellers will be able to connect to each other in the virtual space and trade”, said Blessing Manyiyo, who is an ICT Manager at ZRBF Sizimele.
“The application will foster trade and expand direct linkages between buyers and sellers as they will be able to make transactions at the comfort of their homes,” Blessing Manyiyo told The Special Edition Vendors Voice.
The user friendly application presents potential buyers with opportunities to purchase goods which are categorized on the application. It incorporates goods such as cars, cereal grains, computers, edible plant stems, fruits, farming equipment and livestock. Buyers can easily navigate to a category they are interested in.
Sizimele application enables buyers and traders to use various payment methods which comprise cash on delivery, mobile money transfer, swipe and Zimswitch Interchange Technology (Zipit).
Manyiyo highlighted that once one registers as a seller the application will record and automatically designates them to a slot of sellers while buyers are designated to a buyers’ slot.
“There are two slots, one for the buyer and the other one for the seller, so the application groups people accordingly”, explained Manyiyo.
Sizimele application comes as a breath of fresh air to the informal traders who have been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.