The Ministry of Trade and Industry is training people to help empower entrepreneurs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to address capacity challenges.

Minister Francois Kanimba made the disclosure yesterday at the opening of a two-day second SMEs forum convened in Kigali to discuss the main challenges facing SMEs.

Inadequate skills, limited access to finance and management of resources, lack of access to markets and market information are among the main challenges facing local SMEs.

"The first challenge is that there are SMEs that start without adequate skills to produce quality products. This should be addressed as it is the main factor that Microfinance institutions base on to provide loans,” Kanimba said, adding that the ministry has started equipping would-be trainers with knowledge and skills to enable them teach SMEs skills developments.

The minister said the campaign to encourage use of ‘made in Rwanda’ products will continue.

"As we seek a positive mindset towards ‘made in Rwanda’ products, SMEs need to produce quality products. This can be achieved if they have good business plans meaning financial institutions will not hesitate to provide them with loans,” said Kanimba.

Juvenal Ndayisenga, an official with BIO-HAP Limited that processes beverages, said microfinance institutions are quick to provide loans but their interest rates are prohibitive at more than 24 per cent.

But he noted that before seeking any support or loans, skills development was a more pressing need for SMEs.Vestine Kamugwera, a wolfram miner, said the sector needs more funding.

The forum, organised under SMEs clustering programme, is meant to provide opportunity for stakeholders to network and share views on SMEs development in the country.

It also seeks to address their challenges so as to generate the much needed jobs and exports.

According to Bob Reyman Kabango, the chairman of SMEs forum secretariat, the SMEs forum is focusing on six SMEs product clusters namely: leather products, Irish potatos, minerals, and wood and banana products.

The SMEs sector both formal and informal businesses, comprises 98 per cent of the businesses in the country and 41 per cent of all private sector employment.

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