Policy loophole concerns

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE country’s small-medium enterprise (SME) policy is yet to be fully implemented, after its launching in 2016, as loopholes in it are yet to be addressed, an official says.
Acting managing director of the SME Corporation Petrus Ralda told The National yesterday that the policy was under review.
Ralda said human resource capacity was needed to implement the policy.
Senior company staff yesterday signed their contracts to get the ball rolling.
He said the former Small Business Development Corporation was replaced by the SME Corporation when the SBDC Act 1990 was replaced by the SMEC Act 2014.
“The SMEC management have made a significant progress in implementing the new SMEC organisational structure,” he said.
“The recruitment process is now complete and 56 positions have been filled.”
Ralda said when the policy was launched on Feb 28, 2016, there were no staff to implement it.
The other issue was the legislative reform.
“We are now reviewing the SME Corporation Act to give us the regulatory powers to regulate the SME sector,” he said.
“And we cannot implement the SME policy because there is no enabling Act that gives teeth to the policy. So I had to initiate the review.”
They will work with the Investment Promotion Authority to “clearly demarcate those two functions so that we complement each other and not duplicate functions.” Ralda said the SME policy did not reflect the 85 per cent of businesses in the informal sector. “The other being the informal sector,” he said.
“About 85 per cent is not captured in the SME policy.”