By Prestige, deservedly so marked the award ceremony for Macro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Cooperatives hosted by the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) headed by Minister Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 22 November 2024.
The Convention Centre was oozing with electrifying confidence and pride from entrepreneurs from across the country, who run different sizes of enterprises across divers industries. The businesses play crucial role in boosting the country’s economy and reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
The finalists to awards included finalists include innovators, designers, tech-pioneers, consultancies, farmers, financial services providers, just to mention a few.
During his address at the awards, President Cyril Ramaphosa said there needs to be a mind shift when it comes to small businesses and cooperatives, there is a perception that they are usually confined to a particular locality and industry; but the awards showed how divers and organised small, medium businesses and cooperatives are.
“These awards recognise best practice. They show that small businesses can and are operating as efficiently and soundly as any large corporation,” said Ramaphosa.
Despite the dark cloud that overshadowed small businesses in townships recently, whereby children suffered from food-borne illnesses after consuming food products they bought from spaza shops and vendors, there is something positive that the government noticed, that small business play a pivotal role in communities providing the much needed services and boosting local economy.
“That is why it is so important to bring small businesses into the mainstream of the economy, and that we provide the necessary support for them to do this. International experience shows that MSMEs are drivers of sustainable growth. Countries with more MSMEs tend to have lower levels of inequality. Entrepreneurs are the drivers of innovation,” said the President.
Ramaphosa said the National Planning Commission estimates that South Africa needs 5.8 million MSMEs to meet its job creation targets.
To this, he said government has made inroads thus far to make the target a reality and help MSME’s across the country, across all sectors.
“One of these is the merging of SEFA, SEDA and the Cooperatives Bank Development Agency into the newly-formed Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency. Of the R730 million disbursed by the new Agency to date, R101 million has gone to township enterprises and R261 million to rural enterprises.
The Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency has also provided non-financial business support to more than 15,000 township and rural enterprises,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
