Submitted by: Submitted by Tessng1980
Views: 176
Words: 7679
Pages: 31
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 03/15/2013 07:40 PM
Department for
International Development
ApproTEC, Kenya: Developing
Technology-Based Business
Opportunities
A Case Study on
Business Development Services for SMEs
by
Mark Havers
The Springfield Centre for Business in Development
Mountjoy Research Centre
Durham
DH1 3UP
UK
October 1998
Tel: +44 191 3831212
Fax: +44 191 3831616
E-mail: Global@SpringfieldCentre.com
ii
1. INTRODUCTION
ApproTEC “Appropriate Technologies for Enterprise Creation” was established as a
Kenyan NGO in 1991. Its mission is:
“To promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation by developing
and promoting technologies which can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish
and run profitable and growing small scale enterprises.”
Underpinning this mission, ApproTEC believes that:
• Self-motivated entrepreneurs managing dynamic small-scale businesses are the
most effective agents for developing emergent economies.
• They can raise small amounts of capital ($100-1000) to start a new enterprise and
can manage the day-to-day affairs of a growing business.
• However, it is hard for them to identify viable business opportunities, to access the
required technologies and to widely market new products.
ApproTEC’s approach is set in a context of the weak performance of small enterprises
in Kenya. The 1993 Gemini study of small businesses in Kenya (1) found that: only
38% of small and micro enterprises (SMEs 1 ) had grown since being started and that
47% were single person operations; and one-third of the 325,000 SMEs started in
1993 had failed or closed in that year, as well as another 90,000 failures or closures of
SMEs started in previous years. ApproTEC believe that a major factor behind these
poor growth and survival figures is the homogeneous nature of products manufactured
and sold by Kenyan SMEs and this they ascribe to lack of skills in: market research,
engineering design and marketing amongst actual and potential entrepreneurs....