Africa-Press – Eswatini. The ministry of commerce industry and trade has engaged MSMEs in a Capacity Building exercise on Entrepreneurship development in an event held at Sibane hotel.
When opening the exercise, Director of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Mluleki Dlamini spoke on MSME national policy and overview of the sector, saying MSMEs were categorised in three business stages which are the micro, small and medium.
“The Micro MSME is categorised by their turnover, staff employed and the value of assets,” he said.
He mentioned that the difference business sectors in the MSMEs were identified by different strategic pillars on the MSMEs national policy.
“We have recorded significant progress in the different pillars which have benefited a number of MSMEs,” he added.
Dlamini mentioned that in the access to finance pillar they had been able to establish the Informal Traders Revolving Fund (ITRF), provide the E45 million MSME revolving fund together with the youth enterprise revolving fund and provide small scale enterprise loan guarantee.
He further mentioned that in the support MSMEs owned by women, youth and disadvantaged pillar they were able to work with different organisations like COMESA Project on 50 MWS (e-platform), FEMCOM and the YREF.
Registrar of companies Msebe Malinga presented on a number of important points which included the importance of registering a company which he said was easy and simplified formation.
Malinga also taught on the diverse businesses where he said a company could have more than one business under it.
“Registering a company also comes with tax benefits where companies pay corporate tax unlike sole traders and partnerships pay income tax. Corporate taxes are at a low compared to income tax,” he said.
Co-operative Auditor, Focal Person for Taiwan ICDF Microfinance Project and Youth Co-operatives in Eswatini Celumusa Gumedze presented on co-operatives philosophy where he spoke of the dual nature of co-operatives and said that the dual nature meant that co-operatives had to be two things in one.
“A co-operative enterprise is a business unit. It is involved in a specific kind of business, which aspires to solve members economic goals and at the same time social goals,” he said.
He stated that co-operatives were based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.
“In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believed in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others,” he said.
He added that in addition to the common values, all co-operatives share seven basic principles which were guidelines that enable cooperators and co-operatives to put the ethics and values into practice.
“They help all co-operatives maintain the spirit and structure of cooperation, their identity,” he said.
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