OVERVIEW
Development finance and SMME support The SA SME Fund has launched a venture capital fund. SECTOR INSIGHT The Industrial Development Corporation loaned R7.6-billion to black industrialists.
Glencore supports Moeding Transport in Limpopo.
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ne the country’s biggest institutional investors is the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Apart from taking stakes in large companies in sectors like steel and agriculture that have strategic significance, the IDC has a product called SME Connect. A collaborative model sees the IDC provide funding and business support while a corporate might guarantee to buy goods or services from the small business operator. Most big companies in South Africa have two main programmes to support SMMES: enterprise development (ED) and local supplier development (or procurement). Sometimes they are combined as enterprise supplier development (ESD). Venetia Mine in northern Limpopo, a De Beers Group mine, has more than 50 SMMEs enrolled in incubation programmes and 34 locally-owned companies are doing business with the mine. Another Limpopo initiative has led to the growth of Moeding Transport, a company that has been supplying services to Glencore Ferroalloys’ Lion Smelter for several years. The contract has enabled the company to grow, and it was recently further boosted by the donation by Glencore of two 65-seater buses. In Rustenburg, Impala Rustenburg has invested R8.6-million in the development of a Economic Inclusion Centre that serves as a small business hub for SMMEs in and around the mining community. Apart from the physical facilities on offer, advice on market access and funding is also available. SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2024
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Among the IDC’s other focus areas are black industrialists (to whom R7.6-billion was loaned in 2022), black-empowered and black-owned companies (R6.5billion) and women-owned businesses (R1.1-billion). The increased number and scope of the Business Day Supplier Development Awards gives an indication of how developed this aspect of support for small enterprise has become in the South African business community. The process of helping small businesses become bigger businesses has sparked creativity across sectors such as retail and mining and collaboration with other companies has become the norm in promoting supplier development. Through the Spar Rural Hub, the retail group supports small-scale farmers and creates markets for their products. The Spar Group has established The Spar Academy of Learning where learnerships and skills programmes are offered. This is to support the business owners who take up the ownership model offered by Spar, which, PHOTO: Glencore
