aemathenge wrote:I believe it is time we derived a clear meaning of what constitutes a small and medium enterprise, SMEs.
This way, we can be able to think through our posts and stop making what I discern to be failure to differentiate their loans with personal loans.
Take, for example, Ms Anzetse Were, a Development Economist, whose article in the Business Daily dated December 4 2016 under the headline: SMEs Grapple With Credit Squeeze In Era Of Rate Cap, clearly fails to distinguish between the two.
Extract:“It is not all bad news, however.
Saccos (Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies) have become a more attractive financing option particularly given that some already provide credit to members well below current bank rates.
This may lead to expansion of this sector thereby broadening financing options for Kenyans.
Further, increased difficulty in assessing loans will make it harder for Kenyans to take on credit for consumptive rather than investment purposes.
Applications will have to be thought through more rigorously than perhaps previously.
This is good news.”
Link.
From S.2 of the Micro and Small Enterprises Act
Micro Enterprise:
a firm, trade, service, industry or a business
activity—
(a) whose annual turnover does not exceed five hundred thousand
shillings;
(b) which employs less than ten people; and
No. 55 of 2012
Micro and Small Enterprises
[Issue 2] 8
(c) whose total assets and financial investment shall be as determined
by the Cabinet Secretary from time to time,
and includes—
(i) the manufacturing sector, where the investment in plant and
machinery or the registered capital of the enterprise does
not exceed ten million shillings;
(ii) the service sector and farming enterprises where the
investment in equipment or registered capital of the
enterprise does not exceed five million shillings
Small Enterprise:
a firm, trade, service, industry or a business
activity—
(a) whose annual turnover ranges between five hundred and five
million shillings; and
(b) which employs between ten and fifty people; and
(c) whose total assets and financial investment shall be as determined
by the Cabinet Secretary from time to time,
and includes—
(i) the manufacturing sector, where the investment in plant and
machinery as well as the registered capital of the enterprise
is between ten million and fifty million shillings; and
(ii) service and farming enterprises, where the equipment
investment as well as registered capital of the enterprise is
between five million and twenty million shillings;