If Steve Jobs or Bill Gates had been born in Mexico, they would still be in their garages, by José Yuste – Etcétera

If Bill Gates or Steve Jobs had been born in Mexico, they would still be in their garages. These entrepreneurs had the enormous contributions of creating an easy language to communicate with machines, such as Word in the case of Gates, or of having revolutionized digital uses with the world of Apple, as was the case of Steve Jobs. But they came out of their garages, they created companies, they expanded, they took risks, they acquired equipment and personnel, thanks to financing.

The difference in business development is the ideas, without a doubt, but also the access to financing to make them a reality.

In Mexico, companies do not have financing.

The data is devastating: 53.4% ​​of Mexican companies have taken financing, at least formally, in their lives. The National Survey of Company Financing (Enafin 2021), carried out by Inegi and the National Banking and Securities Commission, yielded the revealing data, where Mexican companies will not be able to get ahead without financing. Or they will stay in very small sizes.

FEES AND PROCEDURES, THE OBSTACLES

And of course size does matter. 53.4% ​​of large companies, with greater access to credit, but also to consultancies, took financing.

In contrast, only 24.5% of microenterprises took out financing. For companies there are clear limitations for financing. In the first place, with a huge 61.8% of the companies surveyed, their main obstacle to obtaining financing is the interest rate, which is too high in business loans.

Second, another strong limitation is the many requirements demanded by banks. The many requirements represent 39.25% of the obstacles to taking a loan.

And they can be added to the many procedures, which are the main obstacle for 33.4% of companies. Or the non-accessible payment terms, which represent 30.4% of the obstacles. By the way, the limitations to take financing are several and the companies answered more than one, for this reason they do not add up to 100 percent.

AND THE DEVELOPMENT BANKING? OR COMMERCIAL BANKS

At the presentation of Enafin 2021 was Gabriel Yorio, Undersecretary of Finance, and of course, who made it: Gabriela Márquez, president of Inegi, and Jesús de la Fuente, president of the CNBV. It is time for development banks to fill those credit gaps that commercial banks cannot fill. Or, that commercial banks see that business financing is still a major challenge. That 53.4% ​​of Mexican companies do not take financing is serious. It limits their growth, their development, prevents them from accessing technologies and they continue to depend on credit from suppliers, if not from informal circles of credit.

BEERS, FROM BEING AN EXPORTER STAR TO…

How was it possible that from being the main export product, one of the champions of the T-MEC, now President López Obrador suggests that the breweries could speculate with the water? In one of his 13 spots for the IV Government Report, the president puts the brewers in the sack of water speculation. And honestly, they don’t deserve it.

They may be blamed for a greater effort to save water. Or that they pay taxes well. Or that they look for how to settle in the southeast (of course, if there is infrastructure, especially gas and electricity). But they cannot be called speculators.

Heineken, Model Group, Constellation Brand; Minerva, among many other companies, have not responded. Perhaps because they fear an even worse government response. Wow, not even in this case Brewers of Mexico. It’s a pity: they have what.

Brewers of Mexico remember that they contribute 1.5% of GDP; 715 jobs in total; the IEPS on beer contributes 37,500 million pesos to the treasury. And they are the main exporters in the world.


This article was published in Excelsior on August 30, 2022. We thank José Yuste for his authorization to publish it on our page.

We would love to thank the author of this article for this remarkable content

If Steve Jobs or Bill Gates had been born in Mexico, they would still be in their garages, by José Yuste – Etcétera