Foster Lewis, a business and financial services consultancy firm, organized a workshop for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on business proposal writing, where the SMEs were challenged to be systematic when pitching business ideas to commercial banks for loan construction.

The workshop was timely as SMEs have decried rejected proposals of loans, even after the downward review of borrowing rates was announced by the Reserve Bank of Malawi.

Foster Lewis’ Managing Director Ian Foster, said that SMEs need to articulate their cash flow, planned capital, overhead expenditures and variable expenditures to support the business in the short term. He stated that failure to show these important requirements may seem like they will not be able to repay the loan, hence loan rejection.