Umodzi Consulting tips SMEs
Umodzi Consulting, a local business and management consulting firm, on Monday trained members of the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (Nasme) in Blantyre in preparation of business plans.
Nasme board chairperson James Manda said since SMEs play a big role in the growth of the economy, the skills would help them develop their businesses.
Said Manda: “The SMEs will be equipped with business skills so that they can improve and develop their businesses; because these days when our members are looking for finances from commercial banks they are asked to prepare business plans.
“By themselves, they cannot prepare business plans and that is why we engaged Umodzi Consulting to train them how to prepare business plans so that they can access loans from the banks.”
According to the 2012 Malawi financial scoping survey of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), Malawi has about 760 000 small-scale business owners generating an annual revenue of about $2 billion (K700 billion).
Quoting the findings from the survey, senior consultant for Umodzi Consulting, Frank Mkumba further noted that 70 percent of the small-scale entrepreneurs only have primary education and that because of that, SMEs in the country are facing capacity challenges.
