The African Union has been implementing the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) strategy it adopted to solve the challenges that SMEs are facing and benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, African Union Commission (AUC) Division Officer-in-Charge Osman said.
The strategy developed in 2019 was endorsed by the heads of state and government with the aim to develop competitive, diversified, and sustainable economies underpinned by dynamic, entrepreneurial and industrial sectors that generate employment, reduce poverty, and foster social inclusion.
AUC Industry, Innovation, and Minerals Division Officer-in-Charge, Ron Osman told ENA that the SMEs strategy is working on solving the challenges the enterprise are facing.
According to her, African SMEs are facing a lot of challenges, including informality, disorganization, lack of capacity, and access to information and finance.
“The AU strategy is working on formalizing the SMEs, which will help them to trade in a correct manner,” she said, adding that the enterprises need to register to participate in AfCFTA and benefit from the agreement.
“A big number of our SMEs do border trade and we need them to participate in the AfCFTA and to benefit from it, completely and efficiently,” Osman underscored.
Under the Small and Medium Enterprises Strategy, the AU has developed Enterprise Africa Network that assists the enterprises in capacity building and mentorship, information, and finance, it was learned.
“With that (strategy), we have developed a tool that we call Enterprise Africa Network in which we are supporting the SMEs in three pillars. The first one is capacity building and mentorship. The second one using the Africa Trade Observatory to give them information and intelligence on market access, and the third financing.”
The officer-in-charge further said that the AU is working in partnership with some UN organizations and African financial institutions to solve the technical and financial challenges of African SMEs.
Solving the challenges by effectively implementing the strategy is important because SMEs represent over 90 percent of businesses, provide over half of jobs, and significantly contribute to the economies in the continent.
“The SMEs in Africa actually represent more than 90 percent of all businesses in Africa, and they provide more than half of the jobs in Africa.”
Source: Ethiopian News Agency