This archive report was first published on 17 July 2019.
On July 17, 2019, leaders from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) emphasized the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the continent's economic growth.
At the opening of COMESA's high-level business summit in Nairobi, the leaders highlighted the significant contribution of SMEs to jobs and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output.
“Each government should have the political will to support SMEs as they wouldn’t be able to penetrate a continental market by themselves. Further, we risk developing a free market which only serves the big boys,” noted Zambia's President Edgar Lungu.
Despite the continent's adequate resources and hardworking populace, trade between partner states remains below average, with exports to the rest of the world dominating.
Intra-trade within COMESA accounted for a mere Ksh.814 billion ($7.9 billion) in 2017, compared to a greater share of Ksh.9 trillion ($86.9 billion) in total global exports.
Acting Mauritian President Paramasimuv Pillay attributed the depressive trade play-out to continued barriers to regional trade, further piling pressure on partner states.
“We must promote policies and measures to better the business climate by, for instance, eliminating barriers to SME licensing. We can also seek to relax some of the rules of origin to enable enterprises to source for raw materials widely,” he said.
The regional business community criticized the heads of state for prioritizing identity politics, which they say leaves enterprises on the short-end of the hullabaloo, further dampening the stakes for harmonized cross-border trade.
Kenyan Businessman and Chair to the Brand Kenya Board Linus Gitahi lamented the heavy burden of political disapproval to market liberalization on regional traders.
“It’s about coherency and predictability so that we don’t find ourselves moving trucks to the Tanzania border only to be turned back on an overnight change. We must commit on long-term consistency in policy formulation,” he said.
