Manzini- The high cost of doing business is keeping many of Eswatini’s micro, small and medium enterprises trapped in survival mode, hence Commerce, Industry and Trade Minister Manqoba Khumalo calling for the removal of barriers preventing viable businesses from growing and creating jobs.
Khumalo said Eswatini could not expect small businesses to become major contributors to employment and economic growth while entrepreneurs continued to grapple with high operating costs, compliance requirements, limited infrastructure and restricted access to markets.
Speaking at the Powering Profit Symposium held at the UNDP Sustainable Centre at the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday, the Minister said Government had a responsibility to create an environment that allowed viable businesses to expand.
The symposium, held on the sidelines of the Eswatini International Trade Fair 2026, was convened under the theme, “Powering Profit: Rethinking the Cost of Doing Business in Eswatini.”
Khumalo said while entrepreneurs had a responsibility to improve their businesses, Government equally needed to ensure that its policies, regulations and operating environment did not unnecessarily stand in the way of business growth.
“Government must listen to businesses, understand the constraints that they face and continuously improve the environment in which productive enterprises operate,” he said.
The Minister’s remarks come as MSMEs continue to face significant challenges in accessing finance, markets, infrastructure and the skills needed to run competitive enterprises.
According to the 2023 Blended FinScope MSME Survey, five major factors continue to constrain the sector: access to finance, access to markets, business capabilities, the business environment and resilience.
Khumalo said the challenges facing entrepreneurs went beyond the availability of capital.
Businesses also had to contend with shortcomings in financial management, accounting, marketing and technology, while registration and compliance requirements, energy costs and infrastructure challenges added to their operating expenses.
He said addressing these obstacles was critical if Eswatini wanted to see more businesses move beyond survival and become sustainable enterprises.
“Our ambition, therefore, must be bigger than simply having more MSMEs,” Khumalo said.
“We need more MSMEs that survive. We need more that grow.”
The Minister said the country needed to deliberately support the transition of businesses from micro-enterprises into small businesses, from small businesses into medium-sized companies and eventually into larger enterprises capable of competing in regional and international markets.
However, he said this would require more than financial support programmes.
Eswatini needed a stronger business ecosystem that connected entrepreneurs with finance, technology, skills, infrastructure, markets and value chains.
Khumalo said businesses themselves would also have to rethink how they operated if they were to remain competitive.
He urged entrepreneurs to embrace technology and digitalization, improve productivity and focus on value addition rather than continuing with traditional ways of doing business.
“Growth cannot simply mean doing more of what we have always done,” he said.
He said enterprises needed to understand their markets and operating costs and constantly search for more efficient ways of producing and delivering goods and services.
The Minister identified agro-processing and value addition as among the areas where local businesses could unlock greater economic opportunities.
Rather than exporting raw products or selling them with limited processing, entrepreneurs should explore ways of moving up the value chain and creating products with greater commercial value.
Khumalo said growing competitive MSMEs was also central to addressing Eswatini’s unemployment challenge, particularly among young people entering the labour market.
He said a stronger private sector made up of growing businesses would be better positioned to absorb workers and create sustainable employment opportunities.
Government has adopted the National MSME Policy 2024–2029, which provides a framework for strengthening the development of the sector through seven strategic pillars.
However, Khumalo said the ultimate measure of success should not be the number of businesses registered.
Instead, the country should ask whether businesses were growing, becoming more productive and competitive, creating employment and developing into companies capable of operating at scale.
He said Eswatini’s economic future depended partly on its ability to turn today’s small businesses into tomorrow’s major companies.
“The next chapter of MSME development in Eswatini must be about scale, productivity, competitiveness and jobs,” Khumalo said.
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