Small and medium-sized businesses in Malawi struggle to get loans from banks due to requirements like collateral and audited financial statements. Even when they do get loans, the high interest rates make it hard for them to grow. Other challenges include stiff competition, high taxes, and corruption. Most SMEs don't have a good relationship with their banks. To help SMEs, banks should focus more on cash flow than collateral, and the government should give tax breaks to banks lending to SMEs. Financial institutions need to change how they work with SMEs.