In the Democratic Republic of Congo, young entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of their businesses in different sectors face a real headache accessing bank credit.

This Friday, March 31, in a panel organized during the forum of female entrepreneurship, Level Up By Makutano, the General Manager of Target, Serge Mumbu, reviewed the constraints that prevent young entrepreneurs from accessing bank credit.

To this end, he relied on a study produced by his firm that gives the divergent opinions of respondents. According to this specialist in market research, several young people contacted believe that banks do not understand and do not want to take risks.

" Young entrepreneurs feel that the banks do not understand and do not want to take risks. These young people feel that these banks are already in a certain square, or they say to themselves that I can invest in such a field, and when one brings them a project that does not fit in that field, they do not accept it. They also say that, at the level of the Banks, they do not consider that someone who has just started can not have a mortgage," he explained.

For their part, he said, the banks indicate that young people do not prepare their files sufficiently and do not always meet the requirements (required documents, clear accounting, financial statements, profitability of the sector, ...)

Moreover, he notes that the Federation of Enterprises of Congo, FEC, mentions the problem of upstream supervision of young people.

" If they are accompanied, we can tell them: this is not the time to ask for a credit and wait maybe six months or a year. And also, they do not have an accompaniment in preparing the files, given that there are conditions to be fulfilled. There is also the problem of lack of information in the head of entrepreneurs about credit banks, "he explained.

Serge Mumbu invited the young entrepreneurs to contact consulting firms to show them how to prepare a file to obtain credit in a commercial bank.

This same panel focused on building a relationship with the bank, moderated by Smart Services CEO Louis Michel Mwando, the general manager of Sofibanque Louis Odilon, who advised entrepreneurs to have good communication and to be consistent with the commercial banks.