Sustained Support For SMEs

Commentary

Stakeholders of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the country are certainly beaming with smiles and basking in heightened hope for a better year. As a matter of fact, the Head of State in his state of the nation address on December 31, 2017 raised their anxiety for a promising 2018 and years to come.

President Biya’s phrase of, “Special attention will be paid to the situation of SMEs especially in terms of settling the debt owed them and improving their access to bank loans,” should thus be ringing unending bells in the minds of various actors in the sector. A heart-soothing pronouncement given the difficulties of the sector that have forced many to remain informal.

Although the Bank for Small and Mediumsized Enterprises has been operational in the country for some few years now, complaints by especially stakeholders still yearning for visibility, of difficult access to loans, are still commonplace. Even those who successfully accessed the loans are said to be in difficulties reimbursing the money owing to delays in paying the contracts for which the borrowed money was injected.

Dizzy situation indeed! Announcing brighter prospects for actors of the SMEs sector, like the Head of State did, could in other words mean that the delayed bills will be paid for the contractors to break even and in return refund the bank for it to have enough funds to dish out to other deserving borrowers. Good news at least given that in the hitherto situation, many of the stakeholders could no longer move an inch ahead in their businesses with possibilities of regressing even inevitable.

The Head of State’s outing could also signal a review of the functioning of the bank for SMEs for better output and why not the putting in place of other mechanisms to better detect, groom and harness the functioning of actors of the important sector of the economy. Recent rumours of sluggish repayment of loans contracted by clients at the bank for SMEs; reasons advanced notwithstanding, are obviously mindboggling and warrant deeper reflection.

When such disturbing happenings are surfacing so early in the life of the bank, sceptics begin to wonder if the same malaise that killed similar initiatives in the past, were completely eradicated before taking the Bank for Small and Medium- size Enterprises off the ground.

Accusing fingers were pointed at loan officials for the amateurish way in which they dished out the loans. While some were blacklisted for selling stringent loan-delivery procedures to the dogs, others were said to have misunderstood the bank for a private plantation where friends and relations could be fed to the full without any worry.

Coupled with the funny notion that the State is a cake where the strongest goes away with the biggest slice, many borrowers appa...