The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM), Salim Valá, said that the stock exchange listing is already facilitating access to finance, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but emphasised that challenges remain.
“There are several difficulties faced by SMEs in the process of accessing finance, including the lack of real guarantees required by the banks, the absence or lack of quality of the business plan, unorganised accounting, the absence of an audit of the company’s accounts or non-compliance with the rules of good corporate management,” he explained.
In the meantime, he called for “sensitising and training companies and their managers, as well as incorporating companies into the value chain of major projects, so that they have easy access to funding”.
“It’s not just through debt that SMEs can finance themselves on the capital markets. Listing on the stock exchange can facilitate access to finance, because the fact of being listed is already a guarantee that they fulfil legal, financial, accounting and market compliance requirements, making it easier for them to want to invest,” he stressed.
Salim Valá recalled that large companies have all the requirements to be listed on the stock exchange in the first place, but that this is no longer the case for SMEs.
“The BVM has created a segment for these companies, which make up the majority of the country’s economic agents and the largest source of employment for the Mozambican population, which has been called the Third Market,” he emphasised.
