Local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have called for the setting up of a bank catering solely to their needs, which would be a big boost to the development of SMEs.
Numbering more than 4000 establishments, some 98 per cent of businesses in the private sector are considered SMEs. Some 68 per cent of them are in the service sector, 22 per cent in construction, and 20 per cent in the productive sector. The two sectors employ 57 per cent of the work force available in the private sector.
Local entrepreneurs said such a bank was necessary as commercial banks tended to focus on big business loans, sidelining SMEs, which also require finance to expand.
SMEs have often complained about difficulty in securing commercial loans from banks, saying that financial institutions sometimes asked for profit records that many start-up SMEs were unable provide.
They added the formation of a bank with the sole purpose of serving SMEs would spur economic growth.
