MSME (micro, small and medum sized enterprises)

I believe that one path to equatable and sustainable growth for Liberia will be from the development of micro, small, medium sized enterprises.

There is a great entrepreneurial spirit. Everyone wants to start a business. Partly because of imitation - starting a small business is what most people do. But also because there are few other opportunities to provide for oneself or ones family. It seems that most people are in government, or they operate a MSME or they are in government and they operate a MSME. There are few other opportunities.

This entrepreneurial spirit however lacks creativity and innovation. Many of the businesses established mimic what others are already doing. There has not been the step taken to differentiate businesses, provide a new innovative service or product, or simply providing the same service or product in a new way.

The streets are litterally crowded with street vendors and money changers. The goods that are sold and the services that are provided however are the exact same from street corner to street corner. I would confidently walk out any door in Monrovia and expect to see someone selling scratch cards (a phone card used to refill minutes on ones cellphone), someone shinning shoes, someone selling candies, someone selling umbrellas - presumably because it is the rainy season. The problem is that all these services and products are interchangable. The market is saturated, and there is no room or opportunity to grow these micoenterprises to employ others, or to provide an increasing standard of living for those that participate in this industry.

There is also little innovation in transportation. Share taxis and "pem pem boys" flood the streets. They provide a much needed service - transporting folks form point A to point B and in fact are the de facto public transportation in Monrovia. A system of hand singles has even been developed so that people waiting for a ride can denote the direction they are going - either straight up the road, splitting off from the road to the left or to the right - all in efforts to facilitate the efficient use of transportation by a large mass of people. But again there is little innovation and the traffic created by the immense number of people operating in this industry crowds the existing infrastructure and makes moving from point A to point B very slow, and at times scary.

This sector however has huge opportunity to create a large impact for the economy of Liberia. The public interest in entrepreneurial endeavors can be captured and directed to more productive activities. If individuals are provided the opportunity to develop necessary skills, and if they have access to the necessary financial services and if confidence in the political and economic stability can be fostered (all big "if's") then perhaps the MSMEs of the country can be the economic engine that brings sustainable and equitable growth to Liberia.