The government wants to resume the 7 percent growth that characterised the Mozambican economy over the last decade. This is a goal that the government intends to materialise by creating three million jobs and, to this end, it is counting on the contribution of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), which currently account for around 46.4 percent of jobs and 23.4 percent of GDP.
The information was shared this Friday (02) in Maputo by the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Mesquita (MOPHR), at the 2nd National Conference on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, which was held under the slogan: “Driving Development by Strengthening Local Industry to Empower MSMEs”.
The source said that despite the results achieved by MSMEs, “these must rise to higher levels”.
He pointed to the acceleration of administrative processes, capacity building and training for entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as catalysing obstacles.
It is in this context that the government, through various policies and initiatives, is committed to improving access to credit, promoting public-private partnerships and strengthening the infrastructures that support business activities.
“In addition, we are focused on ensuring that MSMEs have access to national and international markets, increasing their competitiveness and capacity to expand,” added Mesquita, who was speaking on behalf of Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.
He also recognised that improving the business environment is crucial for attracting domestic and foreign private investment, which will serve as a catalyst for the growth of the Mozambican business community.
The Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, said it was crucial to hold this conference in order to find solutions to the problems affecting this business segment, which accounts for around 98 per cent of all companies in the country and is crucial for generating employment, income and greater competitiveness in the national economy.
“We decided to organise this meeting so that, together, we could discuss the existing challenges that we all know about, but which still lack articulated mechanisms to find the best solutions for them,” he explained.
For his part, the representative of the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (APME), Agnaldo Caetano, considers MSMEs to be important partners for the development of the national economy, even though barriers persist in terms of access to finance and inclusion in major projects.
Caetano assumed that the contribution of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in terms of GDP and employment is still relatively low, even though they represent the largest number of existing economic units, with more than 95 per cent of the universe of legally registered companies.
“Although they contribute 23.4 per cent of GDP and 46.4 per cent of formal employment, SMEs face challenges in terms of the business environment, access to markets, access to funding and coordination of support mechanisms,” he stressed.
For Caetano, these problems have been more visible in recent years, following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, successive extreme weather events (cyclones and floods), the conflict in Ukraine and the terrorism that has affected the province of Cabo Delgado since 2017.
The event was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIC), in partnership with the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (APME).
It was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
AIM
