The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) proposes a national savings fund for financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in order to fulfill one of the actions within Plan Mexico, which by 2030 30% have access to formal credit.
According to the report “Towards renewed financing for SMEs in Mexico”, small businesses face a bottleneck, in which high interest rates, lack of financial literacy and digitalization, prevents them from having access to financing.
Another challenge for SMEs is be taken into account by traditional bankswhere most of the credit is concentrated, and the corporate segments have greater preference, while SMEs are seen as high-risk clients.
MSMEs resort to other financing methods
Small and medium-sized businesses have more probability of accessing credit compared to micro businesses, which is why they choose to resort to alternative financing mechanisms.
“It highlights the credit granted by suppliers within the framework of their productive chains and their own capital, and informal sources such as loans from family, friends or consumer credit products and microcredits originally designed for individuals” is mentioned in the report.
It should be noted that microbusinesses are those that employ 41.5% of staff employedcoupled with the fact that they represent 94.9% of the companies in the country, according to the 2024 Economic Censuses of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).
Cepa’s proposals to achieve the goal of financing SMEs
For the goal of 30% of SMEs to have formal credit by 2030 to be met, a comprehensive strategy in which it combines institutional changes, redesign of instruments and business training. For this reason, ECLAC gives the proposals:
1. Create a national financing fund for SMEs: It is proposed to establish a fund between public and private financing under the combined financing scheme. This is so that MSMEs from lagging regions can obtain credit.
In this sense, it is proposed that the fund is kept in a development bank as Nacional Financiera (Nafin) and can be channeled through private institutions. In addition, it is contemplated that there will be preferential rates and temporary bonuses or subsidies to promote strategic sectors or vulnerable populations.
2. Establish a multi-sector council or committee: Said council would be led by the federal government, in which it must bring together key actors, such as the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, business chambers and state governments.
3. Expand and diversify training for SMEs: To reduce the lack of financial knowledge in SMEs, they propose alliances with technological universities, incubators and economic development organizations, in order to design a national financial training and certification program for companies.
4. Create a national financial education program: The objective is for it to be a permanent program aimed at SMEs, with custom content by size of the company, sector and territory.
The training would be in person and virtual, where topics about the awareness, risk management, reading financial statements and use of public instruments.
