Assembly approves creation of new agency to replace Senpa |27 April 2018

Enterprise Seychelles Agency is the new agency that will soon replace the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency.

This comes after the National Assembly has given the nod to its creation by supporting a Bill for that purpose tabled by the Minister for Investment, Industry & Entrepreneurship Development, Wallace Cosgrow during the House’s sitting of Tuesday afternoon.

Presenting the merits of the Bill, Minister Cosgrow reminded the National Assembly that the Act that created and guided the functions of the Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (Senpa) came into force in 2004. Its aim was also to create an agency which helps develop and promote cottage industries.

“For more than 13 years Senpa has fostered development of small entrepreneurs in the tailoring/sewing, landscaping, handicraft and other businesses through different skills development training programmes, sourcing and organising markets for sales of their produce and handiwork,” Minister Cosgrow noted.

He revealed that there are at present 685 seamstresses, 569 small artisans, 110 landscaping businesses among the more than 2,300 small businesses registered with Senpa.

But as Seychelles faces the challenges of globalisation and economic development trends, the number of people launching themselves in small businesses has increased considerably and consequently this is pushing the business environment to be more innovative. The private sector being the driving force of our economy and where the most jobs are created, have all contributed to push the government to relook at the way businesses are being helped and supported and these include reviewing policies and   legislations relating to the ease of doing business in Seychelles.

“The new piece of legislation being proposed is the fruit of a lot of hard work by the ministry in collaboration with Senpa and inputs from different local and foreign partners,” Minister Cosgrow affirmed.

He stated that a lot of research has gone into the conceptualisation of the new legislation and several similar laws in place in other jurisdictions have also been consulted during the process to draft a model suitable for Seychelles.

Minister Cosgrow highlighted two components of the new law which will be of great advantage to the public sector and these are:

- it will establish the Enterprise Seychelles Agency which will replace Senpa and has provisions to extend and broaden its services to include more businesses and allow micro, small and medium business enterprises to benefit from a wider range of more specialised support and assistance related to different types of business.

With its new structure the agency will focus more specifically on:

- providing a more conducive environment to ease the development of small enterprises;

- registering all the small enterprises to provide government and other decision-makers with reliable information and data crucial for decision-making.

The new law also provides for a different composition of the board governing the agency whereby members will be from related and specific sectors and who can fully contribute their expertise and experience in respective sectors to help the small enterprises address challenges effectively.

It will also establish a national definition for the micro, small and medium business enterprises.

Members from both sides in the Assembly welcomed the new piece of legislation which they say comes at an opportune time in the development of the cottage industry sector in Seychelles and will ensure the success, sustainability and growth of small businesses in the face of increasing challenges. 

The new law, they say, is more ambitious, provides more opportunities for the small business sector and as it covers more businesses, it will take the development of cottage industry to the next level.

Meanwhile, the Assembly’s sitting on Wednesday afternoon was the last for this first term during which it held 17 sittings altogether. It debated two bills, nine motions, called in ministers to answer seven private notice questions, five urgent questions among numerous other questions.

The Assembly will resume sittings for its second term on May 22.