Government has challenged Eswatini’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to move beyond survival and focus on growth, productivity and competitiveness.
Minister for Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo said the country needed more businesses that could grow from micro to small and medium-sized enterprises, create jobs, add value to local products and compete in regional and international markets.
Speaking during the Powering Profit Symposium held on the sidelines of the Eswatini International Trade Fair 2026, Khumalo said MSMEs remained central to the livelihoods of many emaSwati and the country’s economic development.
He said the 2023 Blended FinScope MSME Survey had identified five major challenges facing MSMEs, including access to finance, access to markets, business capabilities, the business environment and business resilience.
Khumalo said these challenges showed that MSME development could not be addressed from a single angle.
“Our ambition, therefore, must be bigger than simply having more MSMEs. We need more MSMEs that survive. We need more that grow,” he said.
He said businesses needed to adopt technology, understand their markets and costs, add value to local production and find ways of operating more efficiently.
Khumalo said the new frontiers of MSME development included digitalisation, agro-processing, value addition, access to finance and investment, larger regional and international markets, productivity and competitiveness.
He said Government had developed the Eswatini National MSME Policy 2024–2029 to provide a framework for supporting enterprises through seven pillars, including finance, infrastructure and technology, markets and value chains and human capital development.
The minister said the ultimate measure of success should be whether businesses were growing, becoming more productive and competitive and creating jobs.
“Are more of today’s MSMEs becoming the larger Eswatini businesses of tomorrow?” he asked.
He said the next chapter of MSME development should focus on scale, productivity, competitiveness and employment.
