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In the spirit of celebrating the 15th annual Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022, which was launched by the Global Entrepreneurship Network president, Jonathan Ortmans at the Inaugural National Presidential SMME and Co-Operatives Awards hosted by the Department of Small Business Development on 13 November 2022, five budding small enterprises walked away with prizes worth over R2million. These prizes are a culmination of 14 provincial boot camps for Seda's "Pitch for Funding" programme that has been running since June 2022 throughout the lengths and breadths of South Africa and attracted over 1000 small enterprises who pitched their business ideas. The provincial bootcamps resulted in 34 finalists competing in the finals held in Gauteng from which nine prevailed to head to the bigger stage, the Inaugural National SMME and Co-Operatives Summit held from 14 to 16 November 2022.

Madiba established Sakhe in 2020 in order to acquire two interrelated engineering businesses, Gehring Engineering and AIG Plasma. The Small Enterprise Finance Agency (sefa) assisted him with the funds to acquire the companies and stock, along with working capital.

sefa and the AIDC announced a combined initiative that aims to support South Africa’s automotive and manufacturing industries by improving access to opportunities for SMMEs and boosting supply-chain and enterprise development.

In this extract from his paper titled “Strategies for reducing youth unemployment in South Africa”, Jubane talks about macroeconomic and microeconomic policies that can be used to reduce youth unemployment in South Africa and worldwide.

Arion Power received its pre-seed funding and assistance with cash flow from sefa. Here’s a look at the business, founded by a group of postgraduate students as part of the University of Cape Town’s Genesis programme.

sefa funding recipient Mpilo Keswa of Touch Technology Internet Café in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, talks to us about her business journey and experience with sefa.

Meet 32-year-old Boitumelo Pico, owner of D500 Kitchen, a chicken and fish-and-chips establishment based in Utlwanang in North West province, which is one of the youth-owned businesses funded and supported by sefa.

The NISED Masterplan forms the third iteration of the high-level strategic framework of SMME development and targeted support, following the White paper in 1995, the Integrated Strategy for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise (ISPESE) in 2004 and the Improvement plan developed in 2019 post the ISPESE’s evaluation.

In our latest newsletter we spotlight the Amavulandlela Funding Scheme and our SMME roadshows. Our CEO gives some advice we help with common application pitfalls. 

The sefa Amavulandlela Funding Scheme is set to usher businesses of entrepreneurs with disabilities into the mainstream economy.