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The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Richard Ngatia is calling on the relevant stakeholders to strengthen Credit Guarantee schemes to enable small businesses access funding.
Nairobi Gubernatorial aspirant Richard Ngatia has said that he will engage the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on tax measures in a bid to cushion small businesses.
Already the government has been slowly embracing the scheme with more than Sh2 billion having been been issued to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) under the state-backed credit guarantee scheme.
Ngatia revealed that he is seeking tax policy reforms that are certain, convenient and efficient and that enables taxpayers to pay taxes efficiently
Ngatia said that the current tax regime must be shaped to give a waiver for starting enterprises.
“We must have a conversation with the Kenya Revenue Authority to see how we can go about it. We must support women, widows, youths and startups to adapt to digital economy. We are looking at finding waivers for these micro enterprises 7 years at least before you start speaking to them about taxes,” Ngatia said in a live morning radio show at Capital Fm.
Among the reforms Ngatia is proposing for the SMEs include capacity build them on financial literacy and the strengthening of guarantee schemes from the national government to the counties to support financial institutions to advance the same to the SMEs.
“Home-grown businesses should be encouraged to keep going and where possible, they too should be offered tax incentives that will keep them profitable while also giving them headroom for expansion,”