Cabinet Secretary National Treasury and Planning Ukur Yatani signed the agreement for Macro and Small Medium Enterprises Credit Guarantee Scheme.
The agreement is aimed at mitigating the adverse impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on the business activities of the MSMEs and the economy at large.
CS Ukur Yatani said that the MSMEs cover a wide range of activities in almost all sectors of the economy and therefore are a major engine of inclusive economic growth and development.
”MSMEs play a critical role in our country’s economic development and employment creation. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that there are over 7.4 million MSMEs in the country, which employ approximately 14.9 million Kenyans in various sectors of the economy and contribute approximately 40% of the GPD.” says Ukur Yatani.
He added that MSMEs is recognizing in the Big Four Agenda in playing a critical role by creating employment.
”The Government has made deliberate efforts to re-engineer the growth and development of these enterprises as part of the “Big Four Agenda”, mainly focusing on manufacturing, increased food security and nutrition, universal health care and provision of affordable housing.” Ukur Yatani said.
The Government continues to implement various initiatives and reforms to address the access to credit challenges that are affecting this sector during this pandemic period.
The implementation is ranging from the enactment of movable collateral reforms, credit information sharing mechanism as well establishment of Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Uwezo Fund and Women Enterprise Fund.
These funds are currently undergoing various reforms to serve the beneficiaries better. Nonetheless, there still remains room for further innovative and complementary approaches to deliver support to our MSMEs to harness their full potential.
By Christabel Airo
