REGS Outils de lecture

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a major source of employment, income and tax revenue for the states. If they have to face the same difficulties as SMEs in the rest of the world, Cameroonian SMEs suffer even more than others from a certain number of problems specific to the African country. The constraints weighing on them expose them to an early and abundant mortality. What can explain the fragility of our SMEs? Based on a sample of firms observed and followed from 1996 to 2016, and a duration model, the responses to this question were initiated. From the overall results, it can be noted that: (i) inexperience and lack of training in the field of business opportunity precipitates the cessation of activity of the SME; (ii) that the size of the initial lauch capital of the business project and the types of financing determine the probability of survival and the life expectancy of SMEs, (iii) the business climate in which firms operate negatively affects their business lifetime.