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Micro-Financiers Ignoring Farmers, Says Poverty Body
Micro-Finance institutions have been faulted for neglecting agriculture in favour of jua kali (informal sector) projects. The Poverty Eradication Commission chairman, Dr Gilbert Oluoch claimed lending institutions targeting micro- and small scale enterprises were ignoring farming for fear of losses due to the current erratic rain patterns. This, Oluoch said, had adversely affected economic development. The chairman was speaking during a monitoring and evaluation tour of som...
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SMEs Need More Than Cash
There have been extraordinary successes and spectacular failures since the first attempts, but in the process government has learnt valuable lessons. She noted that while great efforts went into making finance available, not as much effort was invested in providing business support, which is an equally important ingredient for success. Many SMEs failed because they were suddenly presented with the new challenge of sizeable loans to repay, coupled with limited experience...
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Thailand and Japan join up to drive SME development
Thailand and Japan have agreed to co-operate with each other and exchange experiences and knowledge to establish a university for small and medium- enterprise (SME) development in Thailand. The organisation of Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation of Japan (SMRJ) has agreed to prepare a second master plan to develop SMEs in Thailand from 2007 to 2010. The plan would focus on SME development in terms of future globalisation, said Jhitraporn Techacharn, the director-general of the O...
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Banks bet on booming remittances
MUMBAI: With an increasing number of Indians living abroad, either for work or having settled there, foreign exchange remittances into the country is likely to increase, market players say. India receives the largest amount of remittances in the world, ?getting over 10% of the $230 billion global market, according to World Bank numbers,? says Manish Misra, ICICI Bank?s head of global remittance. He expects the business to grow 15-20% annually in the next 4-5 years. ?It is i...
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SMEs measure cost of red tape
Compliance with government bureaucracy costs Lm1,500 to Lm2,000 a year for the average SME with between five and 10 employees, according to the director general of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kevin Borg. Obviously the amount goes up with the size and complexity of the company. We had one survey respondent whose compliance fees amounted to Lm300,000! He was speaking at a business breakfast at the Le Meridien Phoenicia organised by The Malta Busines...
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SEEP Network and Omidyar Network to host ?Microfinance Investor Roundtable? to discuss the poten
The SEEP Network will host its annual conference this year October 23-27 in Washington D.C. This year?s conference, ?Investing in the Majority?, will draw attention to innovative practices and current issues in microfinance. The event is an opportunity for microfinance and microenterprise development practitioners to exchange knowledge and experiences. According to the SEEP Network, last year?s conference drew over 1,100 participants from over 101 countries. Alongside the conference, ...
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Renewables in Africa
Karekezi, S ... surveys (PDF) the dissemination of renewable technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa...and attempts to evaluate the potential for these ...
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Emerging at last
IN 1994 this newspaper launched a new emerging-market indicators page to mark ?a fundamental and remarkably rapid change in the balance of the world economy?. Emerging economies were then growing twice as fast as the rich ones, and their stockmarkets were surging. But the timing of the launch was awful. It came at the start of a dismal decade for emerging economies, with crises in Mexico at the end of 1994, Asia in 1997, Russia in 1998, Brazil in 1999, Turkey in 2000, Argentina in 2001 and Venez...
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