Mozambican SMES spend 40% of their time collecting debts – CTA

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambican SMES spend 40% of their time collecting debts – CTA

11:16 CAT | 13 Sep 2018

File photo: Lusa

Small and medium-sized enterprises in Mozambique are spending 40% of their time trying to collect payments, with the Mozambican state among the main offenders, the Confederation of Mozambican Economic Associations (CTA) says.

“This is an old problem that affects cash flow and reduces the ability to increase product turnover and sales,” the CTA says in a statement posted yesterday on the organisation’s website.

According to CTA, the state is among the other entities which do not pay for goods and services supplied by small and medium-sized companies in good time.

CTA president Agostinho Vuma says that delays and non-payment are a “great challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises” and that much remains to be done to ensure the stability of the sector.

“These are signs that, despite the recovery the country is experiencing, the foundations of the domestic economy are still too weak to sustain the growth of the traditional productive sector,” Vuma concludes.

Vuma also says that “business credit continues to fall, although the pace of decline in the second quarter of 2018 is lower than in the first”. “Growth prospects for the financial sector could be even greater if we managed to increase their participation in the transactions of large projects,” he said.

The anticipated increase in natural gas and mineral extraction megaprojects offers a window of opportunity for small and medium-sized Mozambican companies, but a lack of international certification and technical capacity is a hindrance.

Multinationals are often obliged to import equipment, consumables and services from foreign suppliers because of the lack of Mozambican companies able to guarantee supply.

Source: Lusa