Kenya’s Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA) has disbursed at least 2.8 billion Kenya Shillings ($23.46 million) to support micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the last five years, a local media report said.

The government invested more than 1.3 billion Kenyan Shillings ($10.89 million) for infrastructure development and equipment for more than 150 constituency industrial development centres in the previous three years, Kenya News Agency reported, citing MSEA Director Edward Karani.

The authority also signed partnership agreements with local banks to enable MSEs to access acceptable credit. In addition, it undertook the registration and enrolment process of MSEs for the government to address their challenges effectively. 

In March, The Nation newspaper reported Industrialisation Chief Administrative Secretary David Osiany saying that the government is working on addressing the high costs of hyper-regulation, which is slowing the start and growth of businesses.

Nearly 80% of SMEs in Kenya are unlicensed due to the primary hindrance being the high cost of compliance.

“We need to address the competitiveness of SMEs. Unlicensed and unregistered businesses cannot access credit facilities, investment or service bulk orders and this cripples their business,” he added.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)