Africa offers huge opportunities. It carries the potential of being the world’s major growth engine in this century. Some projections show Africa’s economy estimated to be about $ 30 trillion by 2050. That’s three times the size of China today. Once described in 2001 by the Economist magazine as a dark continent Africa has progressed to the point where the same magazine in 2011 it as lions on the move.
Think about it. As the continent grows, businesses will grow to the sizes we see in China and America.Every business person on the continent should be gearing up to partake in this vast wealth creation.
There are already massive African corporations doing multi billion dollar business. However this is not our target focus. We are focused on today’s Small and medium Enterprises, who will grow into tomorrows global players.
Over the last decade, there has been an upsurge in micro-finance lending to African micro enterprises. However, it has mostly begin observed that micro enterprises solve the basic problem of poverty alleviation, but are unable to empower the creation of enterprises with growth potential. Micro enterprises provide a means of income for the individual beneficiary, who runs a micro business. Such enterprises lack growth capacity and do not create more than one job in most cases. SME’s on the other hand are able to grow and create jobs.
Where micro companies meet several assisting financial measures, there seems to exist a lack of instruments supporting the more established, yet still vulnerable SMEs. This phenomenon has been labeled the missing meddle. Lack of SME funding means a continent unable to achieve it’s growth requirements.
During the recent global recession, Africa continued to grow anchored mainly by its small and medium enterprises (SME). These SME’s creating about 80% of employment on the continent, which results in the establishing a new and growing middle class on the continent, fueling a demand for goods and services. Thus funding for SME is crucial for the development of the continent.
In addition, SME owners need empowerment in developing the skills required to successfully grow a business. Bizconnect Africa is set up to create the opportunities for these enterprises to access everything required to make a huge success of them.