Concern over poor relations in businesses

Mawananchi Communications Managing Director Francis Nanai (left) decorates Nabaki Afrika Limited National Sales Manager Mark Mccluskey during the Tanzania Top 100 Mid-sized Companies 2014 gala in the city on Friday. PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY 

By Ludger Kasumuni ,The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

“I urge all financial institutions to support SMEs so that they can access affordable loans not only for start-up capital but also for business expansion,” he said when reading the minister speech.

Dar es Salaam. Stakeholders of Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies have raised concern over the government’s lack of commitment to speed up the process of implementing Public Private Partnership (PPP) ventures for strengthening the private sector in the country.

A lack of political will in implementing the PPP exacerbates challenges that mid-sized companies face in the country, according to Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) managing director Mr Francis Nanai.

The operational challenges include access to financial capital, absence of long term credit facilities and high cost of running businesses.

Delivering a speech at a gala dinner for Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies Survey 2014 on Friday night, Mr Nanai said that strengthening PPP was vital for spurring investments in the country and the East African region in general.

“Good corporate governance can only be attained through joint collaboration between the private and public sectors and this is why PPP is such an important concept… with PPP, we might defeat corruption which is a major problem in development of mid-sized firms,” he said.

The MCL Managing Director also pinpointed other pertinent issues namely; building reliable and affordable power supply, the issue of protecting bio-diversity in the country and promoting projects for value addition in order to create more jobs and refrain from exporting jobs through export of unprocessed products.

“The country also needs to address the problem of importing sugar. This problem must be reversed. Local companies also need to look for bigger market within the East African Community. We are being perceived that we do not participate actively in the East African Community,” said Mr Nanai.

The executive director of National Economic Empowerment Council, Dr Anaclet Kashuliza promised to deliver the grievances to the government for action.

“The private sector including SMEs must have the driving seat in the national economy,” he said while delivering the opening speech on behalf of the minister of State (President’s Office) responsible for economic empowerment, Dr Mary Nagu.

“The government will continue to establish an enabling environment for SMEs and private sector to operate efficiently. The government recognises that the private sector still faces a number of problems, including market imperfection, lack of adequate capital, inaccessibility to better credit facility and ineffective participation of the local private sector in the national economy,” says Dr Kashuliza.

“I urge all financial institutions to support SMEs so that they can access affordable loans not only for start-up capital but also for business expansion,” he said when reading the minister speech.

The guest of honour also talked about the need for Mid Sized companies to take advantage of recent development of optic fibre network for improving efficiency in business operations through information and communication technology (ICT).

“Without the use of ICT you will be left behind in the global economy,” Dr Kashuliza says.

For his part, the KPMG director Mr Rajan Rahim said that the Top 100 Mid Sized companies’ project has been growing focusing on corporate award and it was expected to grow in other regional blocs of Africa.

The representative of the main sponsor Bank M, deputy chief executive officer Jacqueline Woiso said that the survey was crucial for enhancing economic integration in East African region.

“We will continue to support this initiative which is crucial for spearheading national development,” she said.

The Chief Executive officer of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange Mr Moremi Marwa for his part said that the DSE which has been sponsoring such projects has aimed at mobilising SMEs to use the capital market for raising substantial capital through joint or public ownership of shares.

“For business to grow outside the country, or East Africa, you cannot depend on your income or family income. I urge you to use the Enterprise Growth Market segment of the DSE to raise enough capital. Recently three SMEs have managed to raise Sh20 billion each through this market segment,” said Mr Marwa.