Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key to African development, South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Tito Mboweni said in his keynote address to the Fifth Annual African Development Finance Conference on Thursday (9 October 2003).
"Given their potential to address both the growth and distribution concerns of economic policy, it is imperative that appropriate attention is given to the promotion of SMEs," Mboweni said.
As it is widely accepted that macroeconomic stability was needed for sustainable economic growth, Mboweni noted that low inflation and prudent fiscal policy were features of many African countries, but only six African countries managed to achieve a growth rate above seven per cent in 2002. The seven per cent growth rate is seen as the minimum growth rate needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.
