Chennai: The Government e-marketplace (GeM) set up to facilitate public procurement of goods and services and also provide a B2B platform for micro, small and medium enterprises, has been able to board only 0.04 per cent of MSMEs.
The B2B platform was formed two years back and MSMEs were offered an opportunity to sell their products through the platform. As per the data made available by GeM, 28,221 MSME sellers and service providers are listed on the site. Government data says that there are 65 million MSMEs in the country and GeM has been able to get only 0.04 per cent of them on board.
These MSMEs account for close to 40 per cent of the total order value transacted on the platform since its launch two years back. The platform has facilitated transactions worth Rs 18,996 crore, of which the MSME contribution would be Rs 7592 crore in these two years.
“The platform is a great initiative for the MSMEs. But the awareness about GeM among the MSMEs is very low. The government has to conduct road shows or awareness campaigns so that MSMEs can make use of the opportunity,’ said Pawan Gupta, founder of Connect2India.
According to him, GeM has to do some hand-holding as well and adopt a partner-based approach for small enterprises to onboard them and increase adoption. These small enterprises would also then need help in the financing, compliance.
