•Since many SMEs will likely be in their startup or emerging stages, rather than enterprise, we must work tirelessly to prop up their survival rate.
•Alongside finance, we must provide a wide array of enabling support services.
The Hustler Fund must have come as a relief to many hitherto resource-constrained Kenyans and infused new hope and expectations in them.
Prompt and convenient, this innovation is groundbreaking necessarily because it is devoid of the bureaucracy and favoritism often associated with government service delivery.
Coming as it has, before the new administration has settled in, the intervention would appear to signal a desire on the part of the incoming government to make credit access a policy underpinning.
The first allocation of Sh50 billion, being more than the budget of many ministries is bold and certainly not without its risks, given that without collateral, recovery would be bedevilled with all manner of credit recouping challenges including economic viability.
On their part, both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro, Small Enterprises (SME) have done a commendable job extracting useful demographic information on age & geography (by county) from the data that continues streaming in, both of paying and defaulting clientele.
This information with be critically useful in decision support.
That said, we must close the glaring information gaps, without which the outcome of midwifing and graduating the maximum number of successful ventures may become elusive.
Since many SMEs will likely be in their startup or emerging stages, rather than enterprise, we must work tirelessly to prop up their survival rate.
Alongside finance, we must provide a wide array of enabling support services.
Knowledge and networking
Industry analysis, market dynamics, organization and staffing, business plan development, linkage to financial institutions and investors, training are all tools that aid and promote the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies
Training
Commerce is defined as the art of exploiting the need someone has for something. The mindset is not in short supply. Training clientele on the what (product or service)/who (customer)/ why (cost, differentiation, competitiveness)/how (operation, distribution)/ where (market, footprint)/when ....... is business-101 and must be imparted to all Hustlers.
Magazine
Business leaders from diverse backgrounds bring along with them their approaches, styles, insights & techniques forged in their environment, learning on the job & through the experience of their company & the market.
A Hustler magazine would be a good medium to congregate and leverage this immense, often timeless & trendy wealth.
This support can only be provided by the two ministries.
County Government
Lastly, our devolved government could play a critical role as an agent in abridging this next critical stage.