Examination of the challenges of micro, small and medium enterprises (msmes): insights from market vending business in Malawi

Abstract

Market Vending Business (MVB) is an important source of income to many people. MVB helps in poverty reduction by providing employment, income, and relatively cheap products. In Malawi, MVB plays a greater role on income - poverty reduction. However, many studies have found that MVB is experiencing numerous challenges. The challenges of MVB are rampant and they are affecting the development of many countries. Despite finding the challenges, there is a knowledge gap that needs to be filled up. According to Dick (2000), cited in Mutambi (2008), many studies have mostly indulged the policy makers to come up with the solutions to the challenges of MSMEs. Participatory approach has not been used in finding out the challenges and solutions to the challenges. According to Creswell (2003), Participatory approach involves the participants in a research. The vendors themselves have not been fully indulged in coming up with the solutions to their challenges. The challenges of MVB can be well understood by the vendors themselves. The policy makers can just help in implementing the solutions. It is against this background that the study aimed at finding the solutions to the challenges of MVB using a participatory approach. The objectives of the study were to: identify the dominant challenges of MVB, establish why MVB continue to increase despite the challenges, and find out the possible solutions to the challenges of MVB in Malawi. The study was quantitative and adopted the Structuralist theory because it best suits the nature of MVB in Malawi. The study used questionnaire and interviews to collect primary data. The study also used published journals, books, articles, dissertations, and magazines to collect secondary data. Convenience sampling technique was used and the actual participants were 300. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The study findings have shown that the dominant challenges faced by market vendors in Malawi are; lack of capital, lack of legal protection, lack of business skills, and lack of stable security. MVB is still in operation despite the challenges because it is a source of income and source of informal employment. To mitigate the challenges, the study found that there is need for ‘soft loans’, legal protection, business skills, and stable security.