The World Bank Group has expressed interest to help the country to address the challenges that hold back Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in terms of competitiveness and having an impact on the nation’s economy. 

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the World Export Development Forum, last week, Annabel Gonzalez, a Senior Trade and Competitiveness Director at the World Bank said Rwanda is among countries they would be working with closely to develop SMEs and address challenges that hold them back.

Other countries they would be working with in the region are Kenya and Ethiopia.

Gonzalez said as far as developing local SMEs is concerned, Rwanda had managed to create a conducive business environment which had been key in developing the already existing enterprises.

"Rwanda has registered tremendous progress in terms of having a conducive business environment and the country occupies a favourable spot in the doing business rankings,” Gonzalez said.

She, however, noted that there were challenges such as access to global markets and country’s market size which were mostly brought about by being landlocked.

"Once you have a pool of competitive SMEs, it is important to assist them enter global markets, because at times they are not familiar with the markets. We will be looking to see what is it we can do to help on this at enterprise level and further enhancing the trade environment through trade facilitation,” she noted.

She said there is need to promote and prioritise ongoing regional promotion initiatives to increase the market that investors want.

"The size of the market is another important aspect; this is why regional integration will be another of our priority areas. Investors are more likely to venture into larger markets. It is important that countries work together to reduce transit time as well as facilitate the movement between countries so that investors have a larger market,” Gonzalez said.

She said this will be done by giving attention to both the government and the private sector in addressing the challenges.

On the issue of access to finance, an issue SMEs have cited for long, David Bridgman, Investment Climate Africa Manager at the World Bank Group said they will work to extend loans to financial institutions in the region which will then be availed to clients.