Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, accounting for the majority of businesses and generating over 50 percent of jobs worldwide. This makes them an essential driver of economic growth.
Yet, most entrepreneurs who start a business lack the knowledge needed to operate it successfully. This, coupled with limited access to capital, remains a key obstacle to the growth and sustainability of SMEs-especially in Africa and other developing regions.
As financiers continue to improve access to capital for SME entrepreneurs, it is crucial that they also provide technical assistance to increase their chances of success. Technical assistance-expertise, advice, and support aimed at resolving operational challenges, building capacity, or improving business processes-can be the difference between stagnation and sustainable growth.
However, technical assistance is not a one-size-fits-all service. Since SMEs differ in the products and services they offer, they also face unique challenges and have distinct ambitions.
This means that technical assistance must be tailored and customised to each SME’s specific needs to yield meaningful results in the long term. Despite its value, technical assistance is not always welcome or easy to implement. Financiers often encounter resistance from SME owners who seek financing alone.
This resistance often arises from a lack of understanding of what technical assistance entails, as well as fear of the changes that may result from such interventions.
Additionally, because technical assistance is typically offered on a cost-sharing basis-where the owner contributes a portion of the cost to ensure alignment-many entrepreneurs prefer to allocate those funds elsewhere, such as purchasing software or equipment.
To overcome this resistance, financiers should engage SME owners in visualising the bigger picture of what their business could become when financial support is combined with technical assistance. When well positioned, technical assistance can be catalytic, particularly for businesses facing a wide range of operational challenges.
The most effective interventions are often gradual, with disbursements linked to progress, milestones, and frequent adaptations over time.
For high-impact SMEs, areas such as corporate governance and human capacity development are often the most pressing, particularly because many of these businesses are family-owned and operated.
The availability-or absence-of the right type of technical assistance can determine whether an SME thrives or fails. When coupled with access to capital, tailored technical support opens doors to critical resources and strengthens business resilience.
Together, these twin pillars-financing and technical assistance-form the foundation for sustainable SME growth, job creation, and broader economic development.
We also structure the funding in such a way that they do not feel the pinch as they pay for the technical assistance. With time the SMEs we work with see the value of technical assistance as they are also able to identify the gaps in their business operations and more often than not even request for more of it.
GBF works with a network of experts to provide the specialized technical assistance that is required across board from legal to regulatory support and others. One of the challenges SMEs have is that they start to raise money when it is too late. There is a need to start fundraising early considering the time it takes to get the right funder and to complete the process.
Additionally, it takes money to make them look attractive to a funder yet that is what they are looking for.
Our technical assistance also looks at this aspect to prepare the SMEs to start fundraising for the next refinancing that they require to grow the business.
This means teaching them to be fundraisers and to fix the operational issues they have by putting in the right processes and structures in place to enable them qualify for funding.