Integration fuelling growth of SMEs in East Africa, says survey

East African Heads of State from left Presidents Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Mwai KIbaki (Kenya), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Abeid Karume (Zanzibar) after unveiling the foundation stone plaque at the EAC headquarters site in Arusha, Tanzania. PHOTO/ PPS

The dream of East Africa becoming one market and a formidable economy is slowly being realised, a new survey in Tanzania indicates.

According to the survey by Synovate, a consumer market research firm, about 73 per cent of Tanzania’s top 100 small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), believe the integration process has contributed to the growth of their businesses.

Unveiling the survey findings at the first-ever award ceremony for top 100 mid-size companies, held on Friday night in Dar es Salaam, KPMG country leader David Gachewa said the result showed that a number of SMEs had identified and seized emerging opportunities in the regional market.

The East African Common Market Protocol came into force on July 1, 2010, bringing prospects for a single bloc of nearly 130 million people.
According to the survey, “About 51 per cent of companies that participated in the survey strongly support the integration, about 40 per cent support it to a small extent, and about nine per cent hate it.”

The survey was launched for the first time in December last year. It indicates that 60 per cent of the top companies among those surveyed had been in business for over a decade, while only ten per cent of them had been operational for five years.

The survey, which is a brainchild of audit firm KPMG and The Citizen, ranked Tanzania’s businesses with a turnover of between TSh1 billion and TSh20 billion — based on profitability, liquidity, return on equity and level of indebtedness, among other performance indicators.

“This is one of those surveys which are professionally run…we feel very proud to be recognised for what we are contributing to this economy,” said Mr Patrick Karimi, the KK Security general manager, whose company emerged fourth.

On business confidence, a majority of the SMEs were optimistic about higher growth in future, however, only 36 per cent of them felt that the economy had improved over the past six months.
The integration of East Africa’s five economies has deepened in the past six years.

Common market

“We must demonstrate that we have the capacity, first to absorb the investment and, second, that we are competitive enough to deliver high value returns,” said Mr Gachewa.

The establishment of a common market that allows free movement of goods, capital and labour across the region is expected to continuously deepen SMEs’ foray into neighbouring economies, and add impetus to their growth in the medium term.