The country has 75 percent of the 69 000 which are not registered or licensed to operate and only 25 percent registered.
“The kingdom has a relatively higher number of registered businesses when compared to Malawi which has only three per cent registered businesses out of one million in existence and Mozambique with only 14 percent out of 4.9 million entities,” the Times of Swaziland reported.
It was said that eSwatini, which has over 14 000 unregistered businesses, also ranked fairly well when compared to Lesotho which has 18 percent registered businesses out of a total of 85 000 MSMEs.
“Further, the country also surpasses Zimbabwe which has 15 percent registered businesses from a total 2.8 million functional MSMEs,” it was said.
MSME Director at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Mluleki Dlamini repportedly explained that the main factors for the lack of business registration in the country was the lack of knowledge and a general feeling by some entrepreneurs that their businesses were too small to be counted among players in the formal economy.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo said, “It remains imperative to devise interventions on how to migrate unregistered entities to the mainstream economy. We need to highlight the benefits of registration to counteract the unfounded fear and assertions associated with formal registration and openness in one’s business dealings.”