Ethiopian Business Development Services (BDS) Network
Contact: info@bds-ethiopia.net - Addis Ababa

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BDS - Newsletter

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No. 16  -  August  2006

Industrial Injera Making

Women vending
packed dry food

Source; Ethiopian Herald May 3, 2006

Women Entrepreneurs and their Needs

Mengistu Bessir, a business consultant, presented a study paper about various constraints and solutions of MSEs owned by poor women on a workshop held at Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel recently. The following is an excerpt of the presentation.

The study said that marketing skills and marketing knowledge are limited among women entrepreneurs. In many cases MSEs are focused on what they can make, than on who might buy the product. Thus, to improve the marketing skills of women entrepreneurs, concerned bodies should devise programs with a view to raising the productivity in line with market competitors. Moreover, due to legal status, high price tag of urban land and using poor technology, many women entrepreneurs are unable to benefit from their business returns.

The government should arrange and formulate favourable policies to join the formal sector with the informal and at last to transform the informal sector to formal ones. Finally, improvement of the MSE practice of women can be achieved through capacity building, re-orienting existing institutions, and through commitment to improve women’s access to productive, managerial and technical trainings with strong policy support.

 Mr. Martin Kellermann

Participants of the training

Mr. Michael Yohannes, one of the participating consultants presenting his group deliberations to export Cement to South Africa with SABS Mark.

 Export Quality Management for SMEs

The market access requirements of high end export markets like the EU, USA, South Africa, etc. are becoming stronger time to time which seem difficult to be met by SMEs from emerging economies like Ethiopia. One of the four components of the Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) of Ethiopia focuses on Quality Infrastructure.  The programme follows a twin edged approach i.e. building national capacity to certifying products and operational processes on the one hand and enabling enterprises to become quality certified on the other hand. This is quite a challenging task at a place where awareness about quality is at basic level.

The first ever training in export quality management in Ethiopia has been conducted from July 17-18, 2006 for two days by Mr. Martin KELLERMANN from PTB. A total of 52 participants from the export sector, public sector and consultants have taken the training. The training exposed that Ethiopia is a lot far behind in terms of quality infrastructure by international standard that there is a need to work hard and start soon the accreditation process of laboratories, and building the capacity of local consultants for helping enterprises organise themselves to be quality certified in management, environment and product. It is quite expensive and unaffordable for SMEs to get such services from abroad. Therefore, building a quality infrastructure is crucial at national level to foster the competitiveness of SMEs at the global market place.  

The other most important issue for agriculture based economies like Ethiopia is the issue of tracking and tracing. The issue of quality is from “farm to fork” i.e. what matters isn’t only the final product. Traceability is easier when farms are highly commercialized and largely occupied by investors. In the case of Ethiopia where farms are fragmented and small plots of land i.e. as small as ½ acre of land is found at the disposal of one farming household, tracing becomes a difficult and expensive task. Some investors hold a sizable area of farm land and give support to surrounding farmers to maintain standards and serve as marketing gateways to their products. This approach which is called “out grower scheme” is a good approach which needs to be encouraged. The editor of this newsletter would really appreciate if other coping mechanisms are forwarded by readers in such demanding quality era. It is evident that many exporters lost their markets because of being required to be EurepGAP Certified. These exporters do not know where the products they export are coming from let alone how they are grown.

The following technical regulation framework was presented by Mr. Martin Kellermann as an important instrument to learn about the overall process of meeting technical requirements.

 Examples of business boxes

1. Mobile phone charging station Costs: Appx. € 450,-includes training, installation and marketing tools

2. Bread baking oven

Costs:  Appx. € 800,-

includes training, installation and marketing tools   

 NEW!

IntEnt Business out of the Box is looking for partners

Business out of the Box

Following the success of her migrant entrepreneurship programme, IntEnt has launched a new
initiative named Business-out-of-the-Box. Through Business-out-of-the-Box, migrants from Ethiopia and Ghana living and working in The Netherlands can invest in a micro-business, and appoint a relative or friend residing in Ghana or Ethiopia as a manager.

Business-out-of-the-Box is looking for partners (NGO’s or private companies)

-  who can elaborate and sell the business box together with IntEnt,

-  who can deliver the machinery / install the needed equipment /  supply the stock.

The products / business concepts:

- Require a small investment (between € 250 and € 2500 )

- Should have proven success in the market

- Should be used by the client to generate income

Interested potential partners are can contact IntEnt on +31 70 305 1820,

Nienke Stam, nstam@ondernemenoverdegrens.nl

Previous BDS Newsletters please visit www.bds-ethiopia.net/news.htm.

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