Worldwide 600 million jobs are needed over the next 15 years to keep employment rates at their current level. SMEs can and need to play an important role in securing and creating these new jobs, if development programmes revert their focus to job creation with the help of effective trainings and restructured access to finance.

The inability of African firms to implement management practices that conform to basic international standards is a barrier to enter global markets, depressing their productivity and employment creation potential. An agenda to raise management practices to world standards is desirable, but challenging.

Consider the Accra, Ghana based company DreamOval. Five years back, in the classic genesis of many African SMEs, founder Derrydean Dadzie won a single contract: deliver an NGO-funded health support program.

Despite being the world’s second fastest-growing region, Africa’s challenge is translating this growth into broad-based improvements in well-being. SMEs development is key to change this.