PODCAST | Small business support should be more than a box ticking exercise

The plight of unsupported small businesses is the focus in this edition of Business Day Spotlight. 

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Thuli Phiri, founder of The African Storyteller, a business communications and stakeholder relations management agency that operates across Africa.

Small business are often touted as being engines for growth, particularly around employment, in SA and the rest of the world. 

But Phiri says people, corporations and governments have not given as much support to such enterprises as they should. More needs to be done to help growth a sector that is said to contribute up to 40% of GDP by some estimates.

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Phiri has more than 25 years’ experience, having previously worked at petrochemical company Total and US conglomerate General Electric.

Since its inception in 2017, her company has done work in Egypt, Germany, Kenya, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia, SA, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Phiri says Rwanda demonstrates a good model of how private and public sector can better engage with small businesses. 

Topics of discussion include: the crisis of small businesses in SA and other parts of Africa; the sector’s contribution to economic development; and The African Storyteller’s business model.

Business Day Spotlight is a TimesLIVE Production.