It is difficult to determine the extent to which government values the economic role that small businesses play in the overall national economy.
The world over, small businesses are the linchpin of employment creation.
That is the case in America, Asia and Europe.
While government has almost neglected this important sector, credit must however go to commercial banks who have over recent times responded to the need of small businesses by investing resources towards setting up and establishing SME units as part of their strategies.
But there is still a long way to go because by their very nature commercial banks are not as flexible as needed when it comes to small businesses.
Risk aversion on the part of banks is a stumbling block.
And we concede that SMEs especially at the early years are a high risk.
We want to point out upfront that while cash is very important to small businesses, it is not the only thing needed to keep SMEs afloat.
Such things like skills, credit, markets and technical expertise, especially on the part of management are very important as well.
There was a lot of excitement when the current Government came into power.
A lot of things were promised towards strengthening the SME sector.
We note with a sense of shame that such things have not happened.
Linkages with bigger international businesses that continue to make billions from government procurement networks have not happened.
Regulatory frameworks have not distinguished the peculiarities that small businesses operate under.
More often than not, SMEs are manned by one person who dabbles as owner, manager, accountant, marketing executive and deal-maker.
A few days after he came into office, President Ian Khama promised that government will be flexible in its treatment of small businesses.
That was very reassuring. He announced that spaces would be set aside with government premises to accommodate some of these companies.
Government Procurement, he added would henceforth take into account the fact that for them to survive many of the SMES would have to break through the tough walls of bureaucracy, regulatory red tape and haystacks of official corruption that are often created by government procuring entities in their dealings with bigger contractors.
Six years down the line, the trade conditions for SMEs in Botswana have grown worse than when Khama arrived.
While bigger contractors can afford to pay bribes to officials in return for receiving services otherwise offered for free by government, small business cannot do the same and still remain afloat.
The result is that they do not receive the same treatment from public officials when they seek assistance pertaining to their businesses.
This has to be addressed as it is a matter of life and death for small businesses.
This extends to timely processing of payments and issuance of such elementary documents like invoices and government purchase orders. The upshot of it is constrained cash flows for small businesses which if they stretch beyond a certain point often lead to collapse.
Again it has to be remembered that small businesses prefer to keep stacks of cash.
For them it is often a hand to mouth survival.
There is no evidence to suggest that under the current administration, raising capital or loans for small businesses has gotten any better.
Across the world, small businesses, if provided with a conducive environment to operate are a source of serious and enduring levels of employment.
We urge the government to look at finding ways of improving capacity of small businesses so that they can withstand economic shocks like those recently experienced.
It is a source of shame that after disruptions caused by a spate of power outages, Government which arrived on a high note on promises of being friendly to small enterprises, it has not seen it fit to come with a friendly suite of concessions to allow those small businesses that survived to recover and get back to full strengths that would allow for them to continue operating and continue employing more people.
