- The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) received R2.5 billion in 2021/22, an increase of 8% from R2.3 billion in 2019/20, constituting 0.1% of the consolidated government expenditure of R2 trillion for the year. The funds went towards the Small Enterprise Development Agency to coordinate support nationally, the Small Enterprise Finance Agency for implementation of the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme and to internally administered incentives such as the Craft Customised Sector Programme and the Cooperative Development Programme.
- The DSBD received an additional R2.3 billion to assist small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) that were affected by lockdown restrictions and the unrest of July 2021.
- As a collective, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, the Industrial Development Corporation and the National Empowerment Fund put forward a total funding package of R3.7 billion in support of the various business recovery interventions. By October 2021, a total of R54.2 million was approved to be paid to businesses that applied for financial relief via government’s online loss registration portal. According to a Cabinet statement, 192 applications were received from owners of small to medium companies that were affected by the violent looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
- The number of SMMEs in South Africa declined by 11% from 2.65 million to 2.36 million in the third quarter of 2020. Most of this decline occurred in the second quarter of 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
- In 2019, South Africa ranked 49th out of 54 economies on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s National Entrepreneurship Context Index, which indicates the average state and quality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.
Overview of CSI spend on entrepreneur and small business
- As in previous years, most of the funding for entrepreneurs and small businesses was directed to skills development (62%).
- Significantly less (13%) was used to provide finance to small businesses.
- On average, less than half of small businesses (44%) supported through CSI were part of the company value chain, with the proportion ranging from 2% to 100%.
Source details: Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2021
