SMEs WANTS DEVELOPMENT BANK

Charles Merreck represented Malawi at COMESA business council meeting scheduled for this week in Kinshasa DRC- with Small and Medium Entrepreneurs hopping it will assist in facilitating the establishment of Business Development Bank.

COMESA business council organized the meeting for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs with a bid to build a strong SME regional block.

SMEs from 19 African countries were expected to converge in Kinshasa from last week and they will petition African leaders on challenges Small scale enterprises are facing in the region –in a bid to find solutions.

Charles Merreck was chosen by the National Association for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs –NASME to represent local SMEs at the meeting and in his speech on departure, he said will talk on high interest rates effects on small scale businesses in the region.

“To us, this is a very important meeting because the COMESA business council has shown that it has interest in facilitating the SME growth in the region.

“This if implemented, will also create more room for SMEs to expand their export trade amongst the member countries- currently about 20.” Merreck said.

Merreck also believes that such regional integrations would enable local authorities to learn from what their counterparts in other countries are doing.

He was referring to the need to introduce Business Development Bank –that has been a mouth talk from all governments that have ruled Malawi.

Meanwhile, Zambia has introduced such a bank –with government initiatives mainly aimed at offering business loans to SMEs at a considerate interest rates.