Kathmandu, August 20
The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry says around 400,000 cottage enterprises in the country have been pushed to the verge of collapse due to the Covid-19-induced economic crisis.
Kishor Kumar Padhan, FNCCI’s Industry and Business Council, says around 90 per cent of the cottage industry operators in the country are preparing to shut their businesses. Most of them were operating with an investment less than Rs 2 million, according to him.
Likewise, a study of the federation has found that the middle-scale enterprises have reduced their capacity to 30 per cent and big ones are also close to an impending crisis, according to Pradhan.
Other stakeholders also corroborate the FNCCI finding. Rita Singh, the president of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal, says many entrepreneurs have failed to pay bank interests and rent for space on time. “Though city-based industries have adapted themselves to suit the current situation, almost all enterprises outside the capital are in crisis.”
As of mid-July, there are 1,177 big-scale, 1,869 medium-scale, and 5,235 small-scale registered enterprises in the country, according to the Department of Industry. However, the Economic Census 2018 had counted 923,356 enterprises in the country, of which 400,00 belonged to the category of the cottage and small-scale industry.
