RUTENDO RORI
A Harare-based furniture craftsman Chengetai Borewore (36) says he is failing to access bank loans to boost output.
Borewore, who established Mc Autherstone Investments in 2017, currently employs 12 people across manufacturing, design, sales, and administration.
With access to credit lines, Borewore said he would be able to grow the company.
“I once worked for a furniture company for 15 years, and left in 2017 to start my own company. So far my workspace is at Greencroft shopping centre, and I have 12 employees,” Borewore said.
“Our major challenge is failure to boost our production because we cannot access bank loans.
“I have also never benefited from government funding programmes. As small businesses, we even fail to open bank accounts because they say they prefer well established companies,” Borewore said.
“They usually do not consider small companies because they think our businesses are unstable. I’m sure in the next five years our company will be three times bigger than it is right now, and we will be able to qualify for loans.”
He also said the Covid-19 induced lockdown has affected his company’s operations since schools have been closed for a long.
“Normally, we target schools since we make furniture like chairs and desks. When schools are open, we can make at least 100 chairs and 100 desks per day.
“However, due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown our sales are low since schools are closed. As a result, I sometimes face difficulties in paying salaries for my employees. Employees need to be paid timeously for them to enjoy the working environment,” he said.
He added: “I am a sales manager and general worker. When you are still small you need to be involved in everything. After running around to look for clients, I then come back to join my team and do the general work.”
Access to finance has always been a major obstacle to SMEs growth in most countries and the challenges to SME’s access to finance are mainly caused by documentation requirements and perceived cumbersome lending processes.
Most SMEs are perceived to have a higher probability of default than larger firms.
Most of them are run haphazardly without due regard to the basic tenets of professionalism including bookkeeping, resulting in some failing to access capital.
The lack of a detailed database of SMEs players across the country means that lenders are not sure of how many, where, and how these players operate.
