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(NYASATIMES) Malawian SMEs hail Business Consult Africa for a productive summit

Malawian SMEs hail Business Consult Africa for a productive summit
By Nyasa Times
Published: October 23, 2009

Delegates at this year’s Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) summit held at Comesa hall in the commercial city Blantyre have applauded organizers Business Consult Africa (BCA) for the high-level meeting, the first of its kind to be held in Malawi.

BCA, a local consulting and business development service provider organized the three-day summit for at least 250 Malawian SMEs from across the country to provide them with a forum to, among others, share business ideas and discuss challenges facing them and strategize on the way forward.

As a way of recognizing the value of each other’s ventures and showcasing them to the public, the participants were also given the chance to show their products and services through a trade fair.

Nyasa Times caught up with some of the local small and medium business proprietors and representatives; while they review the conference in their own terms, most of them describe it as ‘very productive’.

“It has been enlightening, inspiring and encouraging,” said Robert Mwimba, Assistant Administration Manager for Nali Limited, producers and exporters of Peri Peri sauce, tomato ketchup, chilies, soya beans and has lodges.

He said the most inspiring was hearing testimonies from successful Malawian business icons such as Mark Katsonga (pictured) of AGMA Holdings, Jimmy Korea-Mpatsa of Mpatsa Trust, Prof. Jack Wilima of Mwaiwathu Private Hospital and Mike Mlombwa of Country-Wide Car Hire Limited, who were among the top 20 established business players that were awarded on the opening day of the summit.

“As SMEs, we have learnt there’re a lot of challenges in business. We have learnt business needs perseverance and we have learnt in business one should never lose hope. Hearing such advises from such big heads has been so encouraging,” confessed Benedicto Chambo of Benedicto Enterprise, a farmer and agro-dealer in maize seeds at Makanjira, Mangochi.

“If we could have summits of this nature regularly, small businesses in Malawi would certainly be somewhere” he added.

Chrispin Amasi, Proprietor and Director of Masi Leather Enterprise, producers and suppliers of locally-made leather shoes based in Machinjiri, Blantyre, branded the conference as ‘an opener’.

“This has been an eye opener. Problem-solving in business is one of the critical issues I have learnt here,” revealed Amasi.

He however took the opportunity through Nyasa Times to ask for support from government, NGOs, industries and other stakeholders to what he termed as ‘specialized endeavors’ like his.

“There are a lot of Malawians with expertise and are ready to venture or grow their special endeavors that could contribute to job creation as well as economic growth in the country, but because of financial and technical support such innovative ideas or businesses are failing to grow,” he said while hailing BCA for coming up with the SME summit “which is a good learning forum”.

Amasi, who started his small scale shoe-production enterprise in 2005, harbours the vision of growing his business into a large company the same as BATA Shoe Company but he pointed out lack of material (animal skin) in the country coupled with forex shortage for importing the material from Zambia were the challenges he was facing at the moment.

Though he observed there is a problem among Malawians who do not fully support local businesses, in terms of buying the products, he further indicated the market for his business relatively looks promising as he disclosed there are plans to start supplying boots to the Malawi Police Service and G4 Security Company.

Conversely, another entrepreneur from the capital Lilongwe, who refused to be named but said she is “a farmer in mushrooms and several ventures”, was not happy with what other enterprises were showcasing at the trade fair.

“Others are showcasing imported goods while we’re saying we want to promote local products,” how can we grow that way?” she questioned though she was quick to say “most Malawian SMEs lack exposure because going at trade fairs in our neighbouring countries, such a thing would never happen.”

While hailing Business Consult Africa for the summit, the SMEs also salute the government of Malawi “under the leadership of President Bingu wa Mutharika for creating a conducive environment for business in the country as players are able to compete fairly”.

“If you capital and the determination to do business, nothing is stopping you,” observed Nali Limited’s Mwimba.

BCA Managing Director, Henry Kachaje who indicated the summit would be an annual event with the next one to take place in Lilongwe in September next year; he said his company was impressed with the “overwhelming response from Malawian SMEs and the ‘veteran’ business people who were also with us.

“Of course our target was 350 delegates but 250 is quite an encouraging figure and our objectives will definitely be achieved.”

He however admitted there were some shortfalls, which he pointed out “could have been avoided if there was more money pumped in” the event that was sponsored by Zain Malawi, NBS Bank and the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Business Growth Scheme (BUGS), among others.

According to Kachaje, K8.5 million was pumped into the event, with delegates (who were paying K20,000 registration fee) contributing about K5.8 million, the corporate world putting in K1.5 million and the rest coming from BCA.

Labels: COMESA, SMEs

posted by MrK @ 10:00 AM