At the ongoing African Union’s maiden annual SME conference in Cairo, Egypt, financial sector & MSME financing specialist, Mr. Samuel Kojo Darko, indicated that, African MSMEs have unique characteristics, which translate into different business dynamics in each sector of their operations.
He thus said financial service providers, and development agencies, should extensively engage these MSMEs and integrate their inputs into any product designs and intervention programmes before rolling them out to the MSMEs for whom they are intended.
He further stated that, financial institutions should be innovative, and adopt segmentation approach in their product development strategy for the MSMEs.
Mr. Darko made this call during a short presentation he made at the AU conference on the topic “integrated financial services for sustainable MSMEs in Africa: case for insurance & micro-pension schemes.
Touching on insurance for MSMEs, he said insurance services are sometimes perceived by MSMEs as something for the big businesses and high-net individuals.
He charged insurance service providers to surgically correct this perception by promoting insurance literacy among the MSMEs.
“African MSMEs are the backbone of our economies, yet the most vulnerable, and most less covered by risk protection mechanisms,” he said.
“To better serve this market, the insurance services providers must seek to actively engage the MSMEs to co-create insurance products intended for the MSMEs through their sector associations, and solicit the sector associations to elect their own members to champion the sales of developed products as agent,” he stressed.
The AU SME annual conference is the first ever platform which brings together all relevant players in the MSME ecosystem in Africa. Participants include; Development Financial Institutions, Development Agencies, MSME sector associations, governmental agencies, multilateral financial institutions, and private sector institutions targeting MSME development on the continent.
The five-day event which commenced on Monday 27th June 2022 is expected to end on 1st July 2022. The event unmistakably coincides with the international SME day sanctioned by the United Nations resolution 71/279, to be celebrated on 27th June of every year to create awareness, and recognise the immense contributions SMEs play in national development, creating jobs, and alleviating poverty levels.
>>>For more details on the event, please visit: https://aaasme.africa/aaasme-co-organizes-1st-au-sme-forum/