Did you know that
according to the Forbes world billionaires list, the worlds richest
man of all times was a business man? Mansa Musa of Mali, a 14th
century emperor from West Africa is worth $ 400 billion. However,
that not withstanding, it is worth noting that business persons face
a lot of hardships even as they try to accomplish their goals and to
be in the billionaires list.
Addressing traders and
business people in the Kiambu community hall last week, during the
official opening of the Kiambu county traders workshop, the Director
of Internal Trade, Ministry of Trade, Mrs Joyce A. Ogundo pointed out
that the ministry was aware of the challenges that the business
people who have ventured into business face.
Mrs Ogundo said that the
ministry had observed that among the challenges business people in
Kiambu county encounter include, unfavorable policy environment,
limited access to markets, limited assess to finance, inadequate
skills and technology, limited access to information, inadequate
enterprise management skills, limited linkages with large enterprises
among others.
To manage these
challenges, Mrs Ogundo explained that both the Ministry of Trade and
traders need to work together to come up with specific interventions
that will ensure the enterprises perform and graduate to medium and
large enterprises.
However, still on the
highlighted challenges on the limited access to markets, the district
agricultural officer Kiambu Mrs Elizabeth Mukora, asserted that the
ready market for farmers is there and only that people need to
increase on production as there was less food production in the area.
A Word from the traders
and farmers present during the workshop affirmed that indeed that
those challenges mentioned by the director had forced most of them to
close shops. But furthermore they insisted that the more basic
problems that they were facing at the grassroots level included lack
of electricity, insecurity, poor roads network and even political
instability that scares away foreign investors in the area.
Reiterating on the same
the area district trade officer Mr Julius Mwololo said that at times
it was the traders themselves who were causing their own misfortunes.
He disclosed that there was a new trend in the business world where
business people would turn to black magic in order to sustain their
business ventures. This he cited was a wrong direction for the
entrepreneurs and urged them to cease.
All said and done Mrs
Ogundo assured business people that the ministry has set itself an
ambitious goal to offer consistent, quality and valuable service to
the medium small enterprises (MSEs) sector by delivering services to
stakeholders that are need based and result oriented as embodied in
the service charter. She said that the ministry believes that Kenyan
entrepreneurs are well positioned to create their own wealth and
opportunities.
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