After the disbursement of billions of taxpayers’ funds as start-up capital to small and medium enterprises (SME) during the past twenty two years of the country’s democracy, duly, a review on the return is overdue.
Whilst no one has bothered to do a comprehensive analysis on the performance of each of the funds that are disbursed for mainly small black-owned businesses, there are as many cases of failure as there are of success (or it could be lopsided, more of the former than the latter).
But it is stories of failure that should worry us, as they denote wastage of funds (from recent reports from the Accountant General’s report, in most cases irretrievably). Worryingly, most cases of failure are down to business management skills that are left wanting, which are brutally exposed through poor business decisions.
So, this is a clarion call for the introduction of checks and balances to ensure that recipients of the funds don’t just have a brilliant business concept, but possess both the aptitude and attitude to thoroughly execute it.
