Question NW733 to the Minister of Small Business Development
11 April 2024 - NW733
Mathulelwa, Ms B to ask the Minister of Small Business Development
Whether she has any plans to introduce special funding for startup small businesses in the (a) electricity and (b) plumbing sector before the end of the 2023-24 financial year; if not, in each case, why not; if so, what are details of the plans in each case?”
Reply:
I have been advised that:
Both sectors are catered for through the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) funding through the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme (TREP), provided they meet the requirements.
There is a plan to support not only small businesses in electricity and plumbing but to fund small businesses in the built environment value chains. To this end, sefa has partnered with Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) to fund small businesses in the construction and built value chains: construction, plumbing, electricity, carpentry, general buildings maintenance, etc. The total budget for this support is R300 million and sefa is committing R150 million and the CIDB is also contributing R150 million for the benefit of the small businesses in these sub-sectors. The MoU between the two entities was signed in February 2024, and sefa as the implementing partner in this programme is currently setting up the systems and the implementation processes.