Linking investors to Ethiopia’s promising SMEs

New venture to hunt market investors that are now opening like the continental free trade, and potential partners globally for 500 Ethiopian SMEs is established.
As per the deal, Premier Investment Consults and Behak Multimedia agreed to hunt market and investors from across the world for the best 500 Ethiopian small and micro enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing of high-quality goods.
“The main objective of this partnership is to select best products manufacturing SMEs in Ethiopia, produce branding materials, and promote them globally. The ultimate goal of producing branding materials and global promotion campaign is to help these SMEs find additional market, and finance from around the world,” said Woubishet Sissay, Project Coordinator at BEHAK Multimedia PLC.
The branding materials being produced includes the production of print and digital versions of ‘Ethiopian Products Catalog 2022: Promising 500 Manufacturing SMEs Looking for Market, and Investors’, according to Woubishet. “After the production of these and other branding materials, a 365 days digital marketing campaign will be launched globally,” he said.
“The joint program we launched with BEHAK is a very ambitious one that may require us a few millions of dollars to execute it,” says Melaku Kinfegabriel, General Manager of Premier Investment Consults, a certified business advisory firm, which has been in business in Ethiopia for years.
“Meanwhile we shouldn’t ignore the challenges of the SMEs in Ethiopia just because supporting them is costly. Or leave everything hoping that someone else or the government may one day address their challenges,” he said.
“We believe that even with our limited resources, we can help the SMEs to utilize the opportunities they are currently missing out at continental and global level,” said Melaku, stressing that the intention of the partnership is to strengthen the capacity of the promising SMEs of Ethiopia engaged in manufacturing high quality products benefit from the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and other market opportunities.
“In fact, the promise and encouragement we are now getting from domestic and foreign partners, including big businesses in Ethiopia, NGOs and development partners, is giving us the energy to move forward,” he added.
Leather products, garment including traditional cloths and handcrafts like jewelries, agro processing, metal engineering, furniture, and construction materials are the sectors that would get priority as per the new scheme.
According to the plan local industries would be also supported by the scheme to get alternative financial supports from different financial institutions.