Rimusan

22/04/2024

30/03/2017

Spotlight on financing as AU looks to SMEs to drive growth

The African Union Commission is betting on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to drive Africa’s economic growth even as experts caution the continent must broaden the financing options available to bolster such enterprises.
Experts meeting in Nairobi October 7-10 under the auspices of the African Union Commission’s Department of Trade and Industry voiced the need for new approaches to help Africa’s SMEs to thrive as the continental body prepares a blueprint to guide that pursuit—in form of the AU SME Masterplan 2015-2017.
SMEs are widely acknowledged as the engines of growth across the continent, with these enterprises—predominant in the service sector—having a significant bearing on economies in East Africa. In Tanzania for instance, SMEs account for more than 95% of businesses in the country, contributing about 35% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while research indicates SMEs contribute about 20% to Kenya’s GDP.
In Uganda and Rwanda, SME impact is best highlighted by their contribution to employment—providing jobs for at least 2.5 million Ugandans and as much as 41% of all of Rwanda’s private sector employment respectively.
Richard Musani an SME Business Consultant a Panelist who discussed ‘filling the gap of accessing to financing for SMES THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EFFECTIVE FINANCING ECOSYSTEM’ in the most recently concluded AUC Workshop noted that the challenge the SME sector faced was not the availability of Finance to SME’S but the access. The financial institutions believe credit to an SME is a great risk hence stringent Collateral requirements-Most of the banks still focus on Immovable Collateral as opposed to Movable Collateral, the would be institutions with available finance charge high Interest on Loans and the transactional costs on the small loans also high, the SME Sector is also faced by a lack of Medium term credit providers.
“I totally agree that the MSMES in Africa are especially limited in their capacity to access credit because of undercollateralisation, limited credit history and, often, lack of expertise needed to produce sophisticated financial statements. Because of the information asymmetry that exists between the firm and the potential lender, usually our financial institutions attribute a high risk of default to the borrowing SMES, To avert this challenge different Governments and Development Partners should strive to install credit guarantee mechanisms as a risk transfer instrument to overcome these constraints, once the risk is shared it should increase the interest amongst financial institutions to develop finance friendly products targeted to the developing SME Sector”
Mr Musani adds that it is critical to encourage the development of financial instruments such as leasing, venture capital and factoring; survey and title all land so that it can be used as collateral and establish or strengthen credit reference bureaus in all partner states. All EAC partner states bar Burundi have credit reference bureaus in operation.
Some of the prescriptions touted include encouraging the formation of financial institutions specifically targeted to serve rural areas; providing guarantee funds for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that cannot raise the required collateral; and providing incentives for banks to provide agricultural finance.
The Nairobi meeting held under the theme “Unleashing the Growth Potential of SMEs in Africa through Private-Public Partnership” was the third of its kind and brought together more than a dozen experts from across the continent.

30/03/2017

Rethinking financing key to helping SMEs grow
RICHARD MUSANI
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the global economy and their contribution to employment, value addition; innovation and economic growth are well recognized. A vibrant SME sector can form the bedrock on which an entire economy is built.
The importance of SMEs to East Africa’s economy cannot be overemphasized. SMEs in Uganda employ more than 2.5 million people, constitute up to 90% of the private sector and contribute a significant share to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Kenya, research indicates SMEs contribute an estimated 20% to GDP while in Tanzania these enterprises account for more than 95% of businesses and contribute about 35% of GDP. In Rwanda, SMEs comprise 98% of all businesses (formal and informal) and account for 41% of all private sector employment.
Most micro, small and medium enterprises employ up to four people, showing that growth in the sector would create significant private sector non-agricultural employment opportunities. Yet there remain a host of challenges at different levels; policy/regulatory, perceptual, institutional/infrastructural as well as financial. All of these aforementioned challenges present as a recurrent theme across the EAC partner states—indeed the African continent. It is unsurprising that the African Union, cognizant of this status quo has embarked on designing a blueprint—the AU SME Masterplan 2015-2017, that seeks to provide answers to these challenges.
Policy and regulatory barriers
Most of the EAC partner states do not have an SME policy and hence lack an adequate regulatory framework conducive for the SME sector and specifically one that would encourage sustainable development. For example, Uganda only approved a few months back a revised MSME policy that has been in the pipeline since 2005, while Burundi has no SME policy at all. With EAC partner states integrating in an environment of such wide variance in the regulatory regimes you have to feel for the fund managers trying to serve SMEs in the region.
Yet, policy and regulatory barriers are but only a fraction of the challenges we grapple with. There is a general perception in the financial sector that providing capital to SMEs is risky business due to reasons such as insufficient data, obscure historical records and high SME mortality rates.
This is further compounded by the fact that institutions that generate data, distribute reliable information and create relevant knowledge that could benefit SMEs are missing—pointing to institutional/infrastructural barriers.
Ecosystems catering for SMEs' capital market needs
The absence of a capital market-related ecosystem that can cater for SMEs’ specific needs only serves to complicate matters as it impedes the functioning and deepening of equity markets and reduces their willingness to list altogether. Currently the ecosystem for SMEs is not wide-ranging enough, to a large extent due to the lack of profitability, i.e. an economic rationale of SME-related services by brokers and advisors in general.
The lack of SME-specialized ecosystems that can support small-sized transactions and accompany SMEs at the issuance/listing and in the aftermarket is an important constraint for SME market-based finance. A larger number of participants in such an ecosystem would create a greater capacity to take SMEs public and support them in the aftermarket. Consequently, more IPOs could get executed when the “IPO window” is open, which in turn would create a willingness on the part of investors to invest.
Hurdles to accessing financial services
The experience for SMEs attempting to secure financing support in the region is a common story of frustration: banks issuing nearly impossible requirements for collateral, prohibitive transaction costs on small loans, high costs of credit, absence of medium term credit providers, name all. This makes it imperative to develop innovative financing for SMEs.
Align incentives in SME financing
My view is that investors from the public, private and philanthropic institutions approach SME financing with differing, yet at many times complementary incentives. With increased coordination among players from these categories, their efforts can bear greater fruit. The answer lies in connecting different stakeholders thus allowing for a transparent information flow from local fund managers to global investors and vice-versa.
Unlocking access to financing
Making access to financing easier is a critical part of any conversation relating to SME growth and a good place to start is by encouraging the formation of different types of financial institutions, especially those which can serve rural areas.
The other interventions could be providing guarantee funds for MSMEs that cannot raise the required collateral; providing incentives for banks to provide agricultural finance; strengthening credit reference bureaus; as well as encouraging the development of more financial instruments/facilities such as leasing, venture capital and factoring.

29/12/2016

"There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
– Dale Carnegie

14/12/2016

“Deciding what NOT to do is as important as deciding what to do,” said Steve Jobs. Efficient organizational processes are essential… But a labyrinth of red-tape is bad news!

27/11/2016

“If you don’t know something ask those who know”
A little data can give you great answers.

14/11/2016

“The Majority of Company Values resides outside it: In the minds of consumers, in what they think of us. What may be objectively true doesn’t matter”