Addis Ababa — African countries should provide support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in their efforts to become more productive, the Officer in Charge, Industry Division, Department of Trade with the AU, said.
In an exclusive interview with Ethiopian News Agency, Officer in Charge, Industry Division, Department for Trade with AU, Ron Osman Omar said that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in most economic growth and development and job creation in African economies, yet they are facing different challenges.
According to the officer, the challenge of access to markets, access to training and financial resources, access to capacity building, excessive bureaucracy, high taxes, and complex legal frameworks, are obstacles that SMEs face in Africa.
These barriers make it difficult for SMEs to operate efficiently and can limit their growth potential, she elaborated.
AU works to improve the capacity of SMEs, and Start-ups, on quality infrastructure, Intellectual Property Rights, access to finance, and e-commerce, she added.
The AU SMEs strategy, adopted in February 2019 is formulated to deliver results in the immediate acceleration of investment in value chains and sectors that present comparative advantages and economic growth, leading to minimizing poverty and hunger and significantly create job opportunities across the continent, Ron Osman Omar said.
Secretary General of the Tunisian Start-up Association, for his part said that SMEs should try to work together on the most important and pressing challenges in each country and share their know-how, knowledge and experience, learn from each other and combine all these experiences into solutions that will allow African small businesses to develop in Africa and globally.
He also mentioned that African SMEs can benefit from greater access to new markets and the possible economic transformation that competition in these markets could promote, and are regarded as key targets for the AfCFTA.
"we must always work together to strengthen AfCFTA and also integrate and standardize the legal frameworks of the various countries so that we can facilitate these areas and market access," he added.
He also expressed his hope that each country will find ways to learn and exchange experiences with other African countries so that all can benefit from each other and move forward quickly.
