A mega-SME action plan is being prepared. Led by the Development Agency and supervising small and medium-sized enterprises (ADEPME), the scheme will bring together 70 entities involved in the life of small and medium-sized enterprises under the label “Network SME Senegal”.
The main objective of this network, which held a mega coordination meeting last August, is to raise the contribution of SMEs from 20% today to more than 35% in the country’s GDP and by 2025 create formal and sustainable jobs.
The action plan, which relies on increased synergies between financial and non-financial support structures and professional organizations, concerns access to finance, market access, innovation and territorialization, and technical and managerial capabilities.
Banks and financing structures will be used to increase access to finance from 16% to 30%. In the long term, the rate of access of SMEs to public procurement will have to increase from 28% to 40%. For ADEPME’s Director General, Idrissa Diabira, “the ambition aimed at through this action plan is to change the typology of SMEs in Senegal, making them more viable.”
Currently, 80% of these SMEs have a status of self-entrepreneurs. According to the recent survey carried out by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD), SMEs represent 99.8% of enterprises in Senegal but weigh less than 20% of GDP. The tax burden is borne by only 3% of these SMEs, most of which are not formalized. In addition, 0.2% of large companies make up 60% of the total turnover of the segment.
The plan of action that will be preceded by an emergency program 2018-2020 is a whole that is driven by the demand of markets: public procurement, private contracting or export markets.
The year 2018, which has just been defined as inclusive growth by Head of State Macky Sall, will be dedicated to SMEs and entrepreneurship for young people and women in particular. It should mark an essential step in the implementation of this transversal program by its direct link with the 27 mega projects of the Emerging Senegal Plan.
Source: FinancialAfrik
