Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Book excerpt: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Poverty Reduction in Africa addresses the vital question of why the millions of dollars of governments’ and international development interventions in the SMEs sector are yet to deliver significant and sustainable employment and poverty reduction in Africa. The book also addresses the question of how the SMEs sector can help in the eradication of poverty in Africa. The book also tackles the question of what policy makers, SMEs operators, would-be entrepreneurs and trainers can do to contribute to poverty reduction through the SMEs sector. To address these three key questions, the book has adopted innovative concepts and ideas that will appeal to the sensibilities of African policy makers, trainers, business operators and would-be entrepreneurs. For example, the existing literature on system thinking and spirituality in business is used to offer a novel approach and departure from the perennial focus on “technical training” and hardnosed pursuit of “individualised” business and personal goals as a means of developing entrepreneurs and crafting SMEs policy. The key features of the book are: • a focus on changing the mind-set of SMEs operators, policy makers, trainers and would-be entrepreneurs; • contextualising the role of SMEs in poverty reduction by emphasizing the relevance of the African worldview, belief systems and spirituality during policy making, policy implementation and training of SMEs operators and would-be entrepreneurs; • theoretical explanations to why good intentions in policy formulation and implementation do not deliver expected outcomes in terms of the SMEs sector’s contribution to poverty reduction; • practical guidelines on how SMEs can develop a poverty-related mission statement, business strategy and business plan within the context of poverty reduction; • personal development guidelines for SMEs operators and prospective entrepreneurs on how to develop poverty-related personal mission statements and strategies; • the introduction of spiritual poverty and system thinking as the foundation for policy formulation and poverty reduction interventions in Africa.