Rubavu - Over 60 permanent Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Rubavu district have so far benefited from the services offered by the Private Sector Federation (PSF) through Business Development Services (BDS).

The BDS centers, which were introduced by PSF three years ago aim at helping SMEs in every district to improve and grow their business.

"We have been successful in training SMEs in the district on how to market their products, formulation of business plans, access to finance, customer care and standardisation and there are positive results,” said Damien Bazimaziki, the Director General  and Resident Accountant of Rubavu BDS.

Although he recognised the need for more effort to bring more businesses on board, Bazimaziki reiterated that SMEs in Rubavua have achieved a lot in regard to credit access as well as tax compliance which never existed.

Despite the success registered by BDS, the huge challenges still hindering the SMEs sector in Rubavu include language barrier, which does not facilitate inter trade with foreign traders and lack
competitiveness.

In order to improve further, there is a research underway in the district to identify how many SMEs are in the district in every sector so as to devise means on how to closely work with them.

"With this research, we hope to identify sector activities, their challenges and opportunities hence making informed decisions,” explained Bazimaziki.

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