Décio Lima takes stock of his years at the helm of Sebrae Nacional

Sebrae President Décio Lima reviewed his third year at the institution today. He said entrepreneurship is firmly entrenched in Brazilian culture, and Sebrae has been working to support small business owners so they can continue generating jobs and income for the country.

Citing research from Sebrae, Décio emphasized that currently 60% of Brazilians want to be entrepreneurs, making owning their own business one of the population's biggest dreams. "To give you an idea, in 2024, Brazil created more than 4 million new micro and small businesses, and this sector was responsible for 1.3 million jobs," he highlighted. "We are implementing a policy of inclusion through entrepreneurship. Today, 99% of formal jobs created by small businesses are filled by people originally from the Bolsa Família program, who left the Single Registry," he added.

According to the president of Sebrae, the institution has worked to support entrepreneurs in an economy that was not designed with small businesses in mind, but rather with capital accumulation in mind.

During this period, we introduced a major inclusion policy, particularly in credit. In this micro and small business sector, which represents 95% of Brazilian businesses, 88% lacked access to credit, Décio Lima, president of Sebrae.

"I've implemented a credit policy. We've gone from R$1 billion per year to R$12 billion this year. Assisted credit helps entrepreneurs maintain their businesses for the long term and, most importantly, to scale," he concluded.

Referring to new technologies, Décio emphasized the strategic role of the state of Santa Catarina, nicknamed the "Brazilian Silicon Valley." "We're talking about a concept from which there's no turning back. The world must be immersed in the vision of technology, of big tech. Today, anyone, in any corner of Santa Catarina, is buying from the other side of the world. And we must invest Brazil's wealth in this process of economic globalization and digital inclusion," he emphasized. "We've already reached 76% of the small economy included in the digital world."