MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa empowered by EU-funded projects
Some 174 Nigerian Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have benefited from a European Union funded facility to produce high-quality Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and health-care related products.
The MSME companies have been empowered after three years of implementing the EU-funded program which was launched in response to Covid-19 containment measures, aimed to strengthen the capacity of selected local MSMEs/manufacturers across the six geo-political zones to upgrade production processes and adopt World Health Organization (WHO) standards and technical regulations to meet local demand and export to ECOWAS sub region.
The beneficiaries of the program, implemented by four United Nations agencies, were assisted and trained in intervention areas of quality management and SOPs, business linkage, production and equipment management, strategic marketing and business planning. Other area of the intervention includes women and youth mainstreaming, financial management, occupational health safety, labor standards and job creation.
In November 2020, the European Commission took a major step forward in boosting investment in Africa and the EU Neighborhood, helping to stimulate global recovery from the pandemic, by concluding ten financial guarantee agreements worth €990 million with partner financial institutions.
Together, these guarantees were expected to generate up to €10 billion in overall investment. For example, the InclusiFi guarantee with Italy’s CDP, totaling €60 million, was designed to support local businesswomen and businessmen in Sub-Saharan Africa and the EU Neighborhood, who have trouble accessing loans and capital to start or expand their business.
The €160 million AgreenFi guarantee program was signed with two French organizations to target small businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa and the EU Neighborhood, with a particular focus on MSMEs in the agricultural sector, in rural areas and those particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
