First APSME Board meeting held in Yaounde

The meeting of Administrative Council of APSME focussed on the implementation of the operating plan of the various structures of APSME as well as develop a human resources policy and an organizational chart.

According to the Minpmeesa, small and medium-sized enterprises represent more than 49% of the pack of the companies in the country. The ambition of the State for these 94% of companies is that they should contribute up to 50% to the GDP.

Currently, they contribute at a rate close to 36%. "By creating the Agency of promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (APSME), the president of the Republic wanted to solve the problem of competitiveness of SMEs", explained Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, Minister of small and medium-sized enterprises, social economy and handicrafts (Minpmeesa).

The APSME which held its first Board of Directors on Tuesday in Yaoundé is the body which will communicate the financing of SMEs.

It will be, according to the Minpmeesa, the secular arm of the Bank in such a way that when a young company is seeking credit from the Bank for SMEs or any other Bank, the APSME can certify that this company is profitable and pay back the loan.

This is thus one of the challenges of the new structure which the president of the Republic appointed December, officials including its PCA, Minister Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa and his Director general Jean Marie Badga to manage.

The Council on Tuesday was to implement the operating plan of the various structures of the APSME as well as to develop a human resources policy and a flow chart to allow the effective launch of the structure and mentoring of Cameroonian SMEs.

"This structure is of strategic importance because the productivity and the profitability of a company is linked to its competitive potential. The Agency needs to be able to give businesses what they lack in one area," said the PCA. Hence, the agency will coordinate all these structures.

The APSME will be based in Tsinga in Yaoundé and the first management plans will be implemented this year. The Agency will continue what was introduced in the creation of companies and by the national office of incentives to investment which was already within the Minpmeesa.