Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
in Kenya
by Victor Pratt
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Pho o K M p
small businesses provides their own companies with opportunities for subcontracting, distributorships, franchising, and
other forms of productive linkages. This
helps them to achieve economies of scale
that enhance their competitiveness in an
increasingly competitive world where protectionism and import substitution are
giving way to globalization and market
liberalization.
This was the mindset of the original 74
companies that agreed to support the implementation of K-MAPs concept. These
initial sponsors laid the foundation for a
membership that has grown to 200 companies that contribute roughly 800 counselors to a skills bank. They have invested
more than 120,000 hours guiding and advising over 10,000 existing and potential
small businesses in the manufacturing,
tourism, engineering, agribusiness, communications and service sectors throughout Kenya. Multinational corporations
represent 26% of the total membership, while the remaining 74% are domestic Kenyan companies. The sponsors
include multinationals such as Philips Electronics, Toyota Motors, Shell
Kenya, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Proctor
& Gamble, and General Motors.
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In addition to its skills-leveraging program, K-MAP is active in the Small Enterprise Credit Association (SECA). SECA is
a nonprofit organization that unites
banks, non-bank financial institutions
and other nonprofit entities to develop innovative approaches for increasing credit
flows to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
Changing the policy environment
The small business environment in
Kenya, and throughout much of Africa, is
characterized by repressive laws and imposing administrative barriers. Thirty-five
years after the countrys political independence, colonial laws and administrative
systems that were designed to keep
Africans out of business still remain intact. Policymakers are generally suspicious
of and sometimes hostile to profit making, although profit is the basis of taxation
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bark on a campaign to convince policymakers that the profit motive benefits the
economy.
The success of K-MAPs approach to
small-business development has attracted
considerable interest from other developing countries in the region. SomeNigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi,
Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Tanzaniahave expressed their desire to replicate the concept. African Management Assistance Program (A-MAP) is being
established in response to such requests.
A-MAP will provide a continental forum
for sharing of experiences and networking as well as promote joint research on
common problems and publish training
material.
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