As someone who runs a small midsize enterprise, and has had a full month off work enjoying nuptial arrangements plus reading everything I could find during the moon in the honey; the Deloitte write-ups about Small Medium Enterprises are insightful and shade a lot of light on the financial challenges faced by these businesses.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS), Micro Small and midsize enterprises (MSME) are categorised based on meeting any one of the criteria relating to the number of employees or total assets. The classification of MSMEs assesses all businesses irrespective of the legal form of the enterprise. Microenterprises are businesses that employ less than five people and have total assets not exceeding Ugandan Shillings (UGX)10m. Small enterprises employ between 5-49 people and have total assets between UGX 10m and 100m. Medium enterprises employ between 50-100 people and have total assets between UGX 100m and 360m. MSMEs employ approximately 2.5m people and makeup approximately 90% of private sector employment.
They also contribute 20% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and produce 80% of Uganda’s manufactured output. Despite the significant contribution to GDP by the MSME component of the private sector, access to finance remains difficult. The World Bank’s enterprise survey carried out in Uganda between January 2013 and July 2014 found that
only 9.7% of MSMEs have a bank loan or line of credit. The survey also revealed that 58% of MSMEs require financing
Read about the challenges and way forward to financing SMEs in Uganda in the PDF below;
SME Insights - Alternatives to Debt Financing for SMEs
