Financial education for MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up the majority of enterprises in the world, providing employment and contributing significantly to national incomes. Many MSMEs face a number of challenges, including regulatory hurdles and tax burdens, difficulties accessing finance and a lack of general guidance or support. Financial education can be an important tool for helping MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs to obtain access to finance and strengthen money management skills. This working paper presents the results of a stocktake of 21 economies. It shows that, while some MSMEs have access to education, training or mentoring, in most economies approaches are fragmented and risk missing important groups. Identifying MSMEs as a target group within national strategies for financial education would contribute to addressing some of the challenges they face. This would also underline the importance of measuring levels of financial literacy among MSMEs and help policy makers and stakeholders to evaluate programmes that target this group.