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Good practice Imported

Seychelles MSME Development Project — AfDB-Financed Finance-and-Training Package for Small Enterprises

Seychelles · Victoria · See the Seychelles profile · See the Victoria profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 93% 43/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

An AfDB-financed programme paired micro-lending through Seychelles' Small Business Finance Agency with entrepreneurship training via the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency, financing 716 MSMEs by 2020 and lifting loan-recovery rates from under 30% to 90%, though results are largel

509
MSME owners graduated (training)
360 -> 719
MSMEs financed (2015-2016)
10-30% -> 90%
Loan-recovery rate (2015-2017)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Small Business Finance Agency (SBFA) & Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA), Government of Seychelles
Period
2014-2020
Keywords
SME finance, entrepreneurship training, micro-lending

Context

The Seychelles MSME Development Project launched in 2014 with a grant from the African Development Bank's Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA), targeting access to finance and entrepreneurial skills. The Small Business Finance Agency (SBFA) delivered micro-loans while the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA), with the University of Seychelles, delivered business-development training.

Results

Two SEnPA courses graduated 509 MSME owners, and a further 200 MSMEs were trained in financial management in 2018. The number of MSMEs financed nearly doubled from 360 in 2015 to 719 in 2016, reaching 716 by project completion in June 2020 against an initial target of 540, while loan-recovery rates improved from 10-30% in 2015 to 90% in 2017.

Conclusions

In 2018, SBFA and SEnPA were merged into the Enterprise Seychelles Agency (ESA), which continued the model after the project's formal end. No independent ex-post evaluation was located, and the initial grant amount is reported inconsistently across sources (US$1.0 million at signing versus US$1.2 million at completion).

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — US$1.0-1.2 million AfDB FAPA grant.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — 2014 launch to June 2020 project completion; model continued via ESA merger in 2018.
Staffing & skills
Small Business Finance Agency (SBFA), Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA), University of Seychelles trainers

Conditions for success

  • combined finance-plus-training design
  • merger into a single continuing agency (ESA) after project completion

Common failure modes

  • no independent ex-post evaluation and inconsistent reporting of the initial grant amount

Where it fits

Governance type
government agencies with multilateral grant funding
Scale
national (small-island)
Income level
high-income

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Data sources

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