business and investments blog

CTI INTRODUCES PROGRAMME TO BRIDGE SMES AND LARGE FIRMS

CTI Director of Policy & Advocacy, Mr. Hussein Kamote

The Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) has introduced a business link programme envisioned to create a network between small and the large scale industries in a move to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The CTI Director of Policy and Advocacy Hussein Kamote said this week that the networking programme is likely to boost the growth of small industries and increase their production levels.

He said through the programme, small entrepreneurs will have access to markets in larger industries and acquire production knowledge to improve the quality of their goods.

“The link we have established will help connect large and small firms and enable them to exchange products as well as technical knowhow,” noted Kamote. He said there are so many small entrepreneurs producing quality products but suffer limited market penetration.

The industrial sector is crucial for the country’s economic growth. The contribution of the industrial sector to the overall GDP of the country has averaged 8% over the last decade, however activities within the sector have been registering an annual growth of over 4% and the sector is currently the third most important to the Tanzania economy behind agriculture and tourism.

According to Kamote, Tanzania lacks high level processing factories due to various factors including lack of modern technological machines and unreliable power supply, high interest rates on borrowing.

All these negative factors pose grave challenges to small companies noting for example that the interest rates on borrowing from banks ranges between 18 and 25 percent, amounts he said are just too high for SMEs.