smme's limited
23 March 2007
There is no doubt that successful Small Micro Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) are vital to the economic growth of the African continent. A study undertaken by ForgeAhead, indicates that having access to information and the capacity to use it effectively, is key to SMMEs success.
According to the study, the African ICT Achievers Executive Business Forum, is an opportunity to move this agenda forward by developing some specific plans and agreeing to combine resources to carry them out. One area dramatically affecting economic upliftment of Africa is unemployment.
The ICT sector has been identified as a key factor for socio-economic growth, says Adrian Schofield, ForgeAhead's head of consulting. He says development in Africa has been hampered by poor communication networks as Africa is a late starter in the area of SMME development through ICTs.
Investing in ICTs for SMME development will assist in resolving the constraints of communication and information flow experienced by small businesses. The use of ICTs brings benefits to SMMEs, such that it can reduce time and costs of running business processes and puts them in contact with a host of similar organisations and best practices, to guide and empower them with information.
ForgeAhead research also shows that most small enterprises in Africa close or struggle to survive due to lack of data about customers, prices, suppliers, laws and business services. At times data is available but entrepreneurs cannot access it. They don't know how to access vital information on government schemes and some aren't sure about the existence of such schemes. In some instances, SMME have access to the data but assessing and applying it is a challenge.