How can SMEs benefit from financial education and new technology?

How can SMEs benefit from financial education and new technology?

Muscat: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) make up approximately 90% of all businesses worldwide, representing more than 50% of employment, according to the World Bank. In emerging economies, SMEs contribute up to 40% of a country’s GDP and with an estimated 600 million jobs needed by 2030 to absorb the growing global workforce, SMEs have a crucial role to play in economic growth and employment in both developed and developing countries around the globe.

Common challenges are faced by SMEs in managing finances and staying competitive – such as limited resources, cashflow management, stiff competition and the harsher effects of any economic uncertainties versus larger organizations – but a lack of financial expertise and limited uptake of technology can quickly become professionally fatal.

The landscape is ever-changing: a World Economic Forum report in December 2022 suggested that two-thirds of SMEs are fighting for survival. And with margins, turnovers and profits anyway usually far smaller than in national and international organizations, with difficulties in securing bank funding not unusual, the need to secure all available advantages must be at the forefront of any successful SME’s thinking. The transformative potential of financial education and technology can clearly be the difference between success and failure.

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