Question NW2107 to the Minister of Small Business Development

Reply:

I have been advised:

(a)&(b) That During the 2022-23 financial year, the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) developed the Gender, Youth and Disability (GEYODI) Strategy. The strategy was developed in consultation with stakeholders in the gender, youth and persons with disabilities ecosystem. The aim of the strategy is to mainstream women and youth participation in the mainstream economy. One of the objectives of this strategy is “to provide entry points for increased inclusion of women, youth and persons with disabilities into all SMME, co-operatives and informal businesses financial and non-financial interventions.” The GEYODI strategy is aligned with the revised 2019-24 Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) of minimum 40% target for women, 30% for youth and 7% for persons with disabilities in all programmes and interventions of the Small Business Development (SBD) Portfolio (the DSBD, the Small Enterprise Development Agency [Seda] and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency [sefa]).

 

Furthermore, the DSBD through Seda is administering the SheTradesZA Hub whose aim is to assist South African women entrepreneurs to increase their competitiveness and connect to regional, and global market. Some of the results that can be observed include the increase in jobs created and the increase in sales revenue.

The Department is collaborating with other stakeholders to transform the retail sector by ensuring that women entrepreneurs get opportunities to place their products on the shelves of major retails domestically and internationally. For example, we have major retails like Pick n Pay and Clicks stores that have listed some of the products from our beneficiaries.

The localisation programme that is the Small Enterprise Manufacturing Support Programme (SEMSP) programme has supported women entrepreneurs to commercialise their products in order to meet industry standard and quality.

The SBD Portfolio is supporting the Presidential 40% commitment – Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) by facilitating capacity building of women entrepreneurs to equip them to take up opportunities through government procurement processes. To date Seda has supported and trained more than 3000 women entrepreneurs from across the country through capacity building workshops.

The DSBD is also supporting women and youth who are operating in the informal sector through the Informal and Micro Enterprise Development Programme (IMEDP). The aim of the IMEDP is to empower informal businesses by allocating tools of trade to the value of R10 000 in order to build their asset base. These informal businesses are given an opportunity to formalise their businesses and participate in the mainstream economy. In the last financial year 2022/23 we have supported approximately 2500 women, youth and people with disabilities.

The Department is also rolling out the Youth Challenge Fund (YCF) whose purpose is to stimulate innovation amongst youth owned businesses. The primary objective of the programme is to provide the necessary financial support through sefa’s 50/50% blended finance and non-financial support through Seda’s Business Development Support service (BDS) to youth start-ups to promote innovation and enable them to acquire digital capability for competitiveness and viability. The Youth Challenge Fund seeks to provide financial and non-financial support to young entrepreneurs.

The following is a breakdown of financial support for women and youth during the 2022-23 Financial Year:

Measure	Annual Target	Q1 Achieved	Q2 Achieved	Q3 Achieved	Q4 Achieved	Year-to-date Achieved	% Achieved per annual target
Facilities disbursed to women-owned businesses	R801 million	R195 million	R212 million	R268 million	R253 million	R928.7 million	116%
Facilities disbursed to youth-owned enterprises	R601 million	R128 million	R157 million	R149.6 million	R130 million	R566 million	94%