Micro, small and medium entreprenuers (MSMEs) in Malawi are found everywhere in the urban and rural areas. In some communities are almost in each and every household. Majority trade in public markets. You may also find them at road junctions, streets, bus depots, primary and secondary schools and of course in designated trading areas. Nonetheless the government has a big task to provide a conducive environment for all of them.
Some micro traders change type of business anyday depending on where they think is currently viable. You may note that it is difficult to plan support for such groups but also they can hardly master a profession in a particular area due to lack of continuity of their plans.
Some promising small and medium enterprises in our city face uphill challenges resulting from high operational costs in form of rentals and transportation. Though rentals can easily be reduced when they build their own shops it is difficult for them to secure land in our city something we would like to reverse through deliberate efforts such as increasing the size of local designated trading areas, currently they are two small. The other way out is through public private partnerships where our local authority will provide land and a private real property investor will build shops or market complex that will absorb many MSMEs now found in the not so viable areas.
The issue here is to probe thinking for our MSMEs in Afirca particularly my country Malawi where they contribute substantialy to our economy. We need to nurture them.
Thanks to our government for investing substantially the past 4 years in infrastructure development suitable for MSMEs. Yet more investment is required in this area and the government should not be left alone.
Next time i will write about regularisation of formalisation of SMEs so watch out
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