Micro and Small Enterprises leading employment sources – Report

The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) has been identified as the leading employment sector in the country employing over 11.8 million people.

According to a report by a special committee working on the modalities of de-linking the Micro and Small Enterprise Authority (MSEA) from the Ministry of Industrialization, the sector contributes to over 80% employment in the country.

The committee chair Kinuthia Wa Mwangi said the sector needs support from all the government and private sector agencies.

“This is a recognized source of employment, by the survey that was carried out in 2015 the sector employs 11.5 million people the rest of the sector of employment employs only 16 or 17 percent, so it’s a key area of our growth and development,” stated Wa Mwangi.

He added that as per the 2015 economic survey, the sector contributed to 82.7 percent of employment with the number expected to rise this year.

Kinuthia further noted that the sector had made tremendous strides despite facing various challenges such as funding, obsolete technology and weak coordination of players implementing various policies.

“The MSE sector is going to contribute a lot towards realization of Vision 2030, so we have to be in the center of defending the movement.”

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the authority, Patrick Mwangi, said the authority was in the process of developing a framework for Micro and Small Enterprise so that they could easily get loans from the banks.

“Many players under MSE have benefited and the funds allocated by the previous government to the sector could come in handy,” he said.