About the Business Development Services Team
The Business Development Services (BDS) team will places staff directly with one or several small-to-medium sized agricultural businesses in Africa. We directly provide support to a business to accelerate its growth. This support can include such areas as management skill-building, supply chain management, management information systems development, business process design, and more.
Business growth in Africa plays a critical role in economic development and poverty alleviation. Businesses, particularly agricultural businesses, employ local staff and purchase produce from local farmers. These businesses distribute much-needed revenue into the hands of their staff and surrounding farmers improving the quality of life in impoverished communities. The Business Development Services team will directly address this opportunity with businesses to create social change.
The BDS team will be working directly with Social Investment Funds, which are organizations that provide financial investments to small-to medium sized businesses. We will work directly with the investees of these Social Investment Funds to help their businesses to grow.
About Small-Medium Sized Business Growth in Developing Countries
Business has the power to improve the livelihoods of millions in rural Africa. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) account for 95% of all companies in the developed world, and over 60% of all employment. In Zambia for example, only 12% of the working population is formally employed – primarily by mining companies and government. This informal sector creates a gap in accurate information and thus services tailored to its needs.
Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa are challenged by many aspects. They are challenged by the development sector which traditionally distorts markets with high wages and handouts, the government which struggles to provide reliable infrastructure while often delivering deplorable public education and healthcare, and other factors that challenge SME’s such as access to financing, subsidized products from the west such as cotton, distance to markets and an often overlooked ingredient –‐ exposure to successful business owners that are not ex–‐patriots.
An emerging trend in the development sector internationally is to provide support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing nations. SMEs have been recognized as a vital part of economic development, but have largely been neglected by development initiatives in the past. In order to now help to support and foster the growth of SMEs, a number of organizations known as Social Investment Funds (SIFs) have emerged to provide capital investment to these businesses. In many African nations in particular, it is extremely difficult for SMEs to access credit. SIFs therefore provide a valuable service that would be unavailable otherwise.
Social Investment Funds have recognized that financial investment is not sufficient to enable the acceleration of business growth, and that having business support resources placed with investees is a key factor to assisting with business growth. EWB will play the role of providing business support resources to these investees.