While progress has been made in financing the needs of the largest and smallest enterprises in Africa, many SMEs have fallen into what has been termed “The Missing Middle”. SMEs are responsible for roughly 40% of GDP and 50% of jobs on the continent, but are also the most capital-starved. Many financing and advisory models have cropped up, but while some have provided results, many have not. Is it simply a matter of time before the solutions begin to take affect? Or are there integral changes that must be made in the current landscape in order to ensure that the SME sector can flourish in the future?
Amrei Botha heads up Small and Medium Enterprise (“SME”) Banking for Standard Bank Africa. She is responsible for the Pan African SME strategy and performance of SME Banking as well as the development of competitive SME propositions across 14 geographies on the continent where Standard Bank is represented.
She has held various positions within Standard Bank South Africa and Standard Bank Africa over the past 9 years, including Head of SME Banking for Standard Bank South Africa. Amrei is equipped with a B Comm Management Accounting Degree (University of Stellenbosch) and specialised studies related to SMME management, Small business and Entrepreneurship from leading institutions such as the Gordon Institute of Business, University of South Africa (“UNISA”), University of the Witwatersrand (“WITS”) and Harvard Business School. Amrei has worked across 17 African countries and enjoys travelling in her personal capacity as well. She has explored 29 countries outside of the African continent to date.
Athol Williams is a former Partner at Bain & Company having worked their Johannesburg, Boston, London and New York offices with a focus on Financial Services. He also served as the Strategy Director for Old Mutual, one of Africa’s largest financial services firms. He has served as Chairman of Shalamuka Capital, a South African private equity firm and was a founding director of Vumela, an investment firm that invests in and supports micro-enterprises in Africa. Athol has advised governments, investment firms and companies on strategies to develop the SME sector. He has served on the boards of over 20 organisations.
He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School, and MS (Finance) from the London Business School and a BS (Engineering) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Athol is currently an MPA student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
David A. Rice is the Founder and Senior Managing Director of Development Equity Partners, a New York City-based consulting firm advising investors and corporations on business strategy in emerging markets. He is also a Professor at New York University where he teaches a graduate-level course on investing in developing countries. Additionally, David is contributing writer at Fortune Magazine where he publishes an ongoing series of articles analyzing China’s investment strategy in Africa and its implications.
Central to his consulting and teaching roles, David recently spent five months traveling throughout southern and eastern Africa conducting research for a series of case studies analyzing the development impact of foreign direct investment. David is also a co-founder and senior advisor to the Micro Equity Development Fund – a “private equity fund with a social mission” that makes micro investments in small to medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets.
Previously, David served as Executive Director of New York University’s Development Research Institute where he worked alongside global development economist William Easterly. Prior to NYU, David managed Africa programs and conducted policy research and analysis for the Milken Institute – an independent financial and economic policy think tank headquartered in Los Angeles. David has extensive experience working in developing countries. Through Strategic Policy Concepts, the consulting firm he founded, David has completed projects in several African nations and other developing countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Notable projects include a national reform plan for the government of Nigeria, a policy analysis training program for senior ministers in Tanzania, and serving as an advisor to a microfinance organization operating in Malawi and Zambia.
Other former positions include serving as a Senior Research Analyst at Global Insight, specializing in analyzing the political economy of the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand; Senior Project Manager with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland; political and policy advisor to two different U.S. governors; and as a professor at Bentley and Suffolk universities in Boston. David received his Master’s degree from Harvard University and has been a Fellow at the University of Vermont’s Snelling Center for Government and at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. For his humanitarian work in Honduras, he was granted Honorary Citizenship in 1999 by then-President Carlos Flores and awarded a commendation by Rotary International.
