Approtec

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

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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....