Very few countries have working definitions of SMEs, except some members of UEMOA/WAEMU and Mauritius and Morocco. So data on this is hard to compare, though patterns can be seen and countries can be ranked by extent of SME activity:
• Nearly 80 per cent of firms in Congo have fewer than five workers. The country has 2 100 firms in the formal and 10 000 in the informal sector.
• A 1997 survey in Benin showed that of the 666 SMEs counted, half were in commerce and the rest were mostly in construction, or were pharmacies and restaurants. Only 17 per cent were in manufacturing.
• SMEs in Kenya employed some 3.2 million people in 2003 and accounted for 18 per cent of national GDP.
• SMEs in Senegal contribute about 20 per cent of national value-added.
• Nigerian SMEs account for some 95 per cent of formal manufacturing activity and 70 per cent of industrial jobs.
• In Morocco, 93 per cent of all industrial firms are SMEs and account for 38 per cent of production, 33 per cent of investment, 30 per cent of exports and 46 per cent of all jobs.
• Micro and very small businesses in South Africa provided more than 55 per cent of total employment and 22 per cent of GDP in 2003. Small firms accounted for 16 per cent of both jobs and production and medium and large firms 26 per cent of jobs and 62 per cent of production.
Source: African Development Bank and OECD Development Centre, African Economic Outlook (2004-2005).
Financing SMEs in Africa by Céline Kauffmann Policy Insights No. 7 is derived from the African Economic Outlook 2004/2005, a joint publication of the African Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre
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