A business outlook for 2019 by the National Small and Medium Enterprises – NASME says 2019 will bring positive returns to small, medium and large scale enterprises.

Speaking to YFM on Wednesday, National Chairperson for NASME, William Mwale said 2019 will offer business players great opportunities with the fast coming general elections.

Mwale’s prospects are built on the idea that during elections cash circulation happens to be higher than normal.

“It is going to be very bright year, in the sense that it’s an election year so we expect our people to make better deals because during elections there will be so much of traveling and splashing of money by politicians,” Mwale said

“In additional, rains are falling in good measure this year so we should expect better yields. Last year tobacco did well, likewise cotton so we hope this will spill over to this year.”

Talking of legume production, Mwale said this year government needs to identify structured markets for legumes in order to avert last year’s scenario.

2018 was yet another mix-bag. Despite enjoying the stability of the local currency and having the headline inflation held on single digit for the good part of the year, these were not enough to offset the effects of the massive black-outs and unavailability of some product market.