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NO LATE PAYMENTS THIS YEAR - BUSINESS ESWATINI

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MBABANE – No late payments in 2019.  This is the point that the business community wants to drive to government to avoid suffering from the ripple effect of not getting paid within stipulated time frames, especially for goods and services offered to the State.


Business Eswatini President Andrew le Roux, related that the lack of timely payments remains a great concern considering the fact that it leads to poor growth of both the economy and private sector.


The federation has already engaged government on the contentious issue and have been promised that the current debt of about E3 billion would not be increased but instead businesses will be paid up.


“I have been informed by some members that they have been engaged by government over their payments. In fact, some payments have been coming through lately,” said le Roux.


The businessman also pointed out that they would be eagerly awaiting the budget to learn what changes could be introduced and implemented to bolster the economy. As per norm, the country’s national budget is delivered in mid February.   


Growth


“The government strategy is private sector driven, which gives hope that there could be growth going forward,” projected le Roux.
The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) Governor Majozi Sithole, when presenting his Financial Stability Report of 2018, forecasted that there could be growth in the local economy this year. He projected that there would be over one per cent growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).


Borrowing


It should be mentioned that the fallout of some businesses could not be attributed to late payments only.
Over-borrowing was also pointed out to have been one of the challenges for Small, Medium Enterprises in Eswatini.


This observation was made by Southern African Research Foundation for Economic Development (SARFED) Regional Coordinator, George Choongwa.
He said due to limited debt management knowledge, most of the SMEs in Eswatini engage in too much borrowing which lands them into bankruptcy.

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