Virtually every country across Africa has come to recognize the SME sector as the one with the strongest potentials for accelerated, all-inclusive growth of national economies and the gainful employment of their respective working populations. Furthermore the architects of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement recognize the fact that SMEs stand to gain the most from preferential terms of trade offered by the agreement and this represents the best opportunity for continent-wide accelerated economic growth and development.
However, SMEs face major head winds both in their respective jurisdictions and in the efforts to trade across Africa. In particular they are regarded as high credit risks and unreliable trade and investment counterparties, which raises their financial and other operational costs. This in turn curbs their ability to scale up with regards to operational capacity and expansion into new markets, which in turn prevents them from enjoying the benefits of increased economies of scale.
This award scheme therefore seeks to identify a selection of exemplary SMEs from all around the continent that deserve much more favourable terms of engagement by business support service providers including financiers; and who have the potential to succeed in new markets. These are SMEs that therefore have the capacity to be commercial successes and therefore therefore are recommended trade counterparties and investment partners.
By attracting support for such companies our awards aim to contribute to accelerated economic growth and development across various African sovereign jurisdictions and the continent as a single jurisdiction.
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