This symposium will be hosted at the Motheo TVET National Artisan College in Bloemfontein on 2 and 3 March 2023.

According to Larona Tsikwe, the Acting Centre Manager at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubator at Motheo TVET College, the purpose of the symposium is to bring Development Finance Institutions (DFI) under one roof with small businesses. When they speak about small businesses, they specifically mean businesses that have been in operation for 12 months, are compliant with SARS and CIPC, and are ready for funding.

He also mentioned that DFIs consist of the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) and the National Youth Development Agency (Nyda). They provide financial capital to small businesses to develop them and push them into the formal economy. 

The symposium will also look for any gaps in the current initiative, as well as chances to strengthen it, and the development of interventions for assisting black entrepreneurs in receiving equity financing across various sectors.

“We want to bring these people under one roof to link them together. We have identified that there is a disconnect between different Developmental Financial Institutions and small businesses because small businesses tend to assume that DFIs have the same mandate, which is not the case. Or they tend to visit financial institutions for the wrong reasons,” explained Tsikwe.

 Landbank is one of the institutions which has been invited to come and provide insight on which area of the funding space they are focused on and what type of small medium and micro-enterprises (SMME) are most likely to be approved when applying for funding.

Interventions that have been made to support the small business from the Motheo TVET College is that they have established a Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubator. In this centre, they house SMMEs who trade in jewellery and welding, IT, graphic design, and civil construction. These small businesses are offered tools, space, and mentorship, and making sure they are linked to funding.

At the 2-day event, there will be 5 DFIs and they will be sharing information and a dialogue session. Small businesses will get a chance to engage with the DFIs to address their challenges, and they will be linked to financing as well.

The event will start at 09:00 on 3 March 2023 at the Motheo TVET National Artisan College (Opposite the University of the Free State South Campus).

Zenande Mpame/OFM News