Remarks by the Minister of Small Business Development, Ms. Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams during the SheTradesZa Youth Seminar

Moderator Ms Mavimbela;

NYDA CEO Mr Carrim;

Ms Cherian;

Fellow participants;

Ladies and gentleman

Over the past few months, my department and I have been cress crossing the country, Conducting roadshows and meeting owners of small businesses and aspiring start-ups.

Some of you, including the NYDA have been a part of us on this journey in some of the provinces we have visited. So far, we have conducted roadshows in eight provinces.

KwaZulu-Natal is the last province we are going to visit. In each and every province we have gone to, we have met mostly young people who are eager to contribute to the growth of this country’s economy.

Too often we are given the impression that youth are a lost generation, who are lacking in direction and a drive to contribute meaningfully to society. It is therefore pleasing and immensely exciting to participate in events such as this one, And to see young people and women who are bursting with fresh ideas on how we can take our country forward

In my department, we have several programs, aimed at empowering small businesses, The Department of Small Business Development and SEDA formed a partnership with the International Trade Centre (ITC),

In order to bring the SheTrades programme to South Africa, and create a SheTradesZA hub. The programme aims to empower women-owned enterprises to trade locally, regionally, and internationally.

The hub supports strengthening the business skills and competitiveness of at least 10,000 South African women entrepreneurs over a four year period. Currently, nearly 3000 South African women entrepreneurs are already registered on the SheTradesZA Hub, And receive free e-learning and capacity building.

The SheTradesZA Hub will also improve access to investment for women-owned enterprises and promote business opportunities.

DSBD’s and Seda’s involvement in the She-Trades Hub demonstrates our commitment to developing and ensuring economic empowerment of women in South Africa.

My department, its agencies and our partners International Trade Centre’s (ITC), European Union and the-EDSE programme, seeks to increase and enhance the meaningful participation of youth and women in this economy.

The Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme (TREP) is a dedicated programme to transform, and integrate opportunities in townships and rural areas into productive business ventures. The focus is to create platforms that provide the business support infrastructure and regulatory environment that enables entrepreneurs to thrive.

We also have the Youth Challenge Fund (YCF), which is a youth start-up support programme intended to stimulate the establishment and growth of youth-owned businesses, promote digital skills, grow the economy and foster job creation.

A couple of months ago, I presented the department’s budget speech for the financial year 2022/2023. We are confident that there will be an equitable fund flow across provinces. The R2 billion SEFA funding envelope, will see over R200 million disbursed in each province, And slightly more for the poorer rural provinces such as Limpopo, the Free State, the North West, the Eastern Cape, Mpumulanga, and the Northern Cape. We are deliberate about redress. This R2 billion is expected to support 84 831 SMMEs and co-operatives creating 104 968 jobs.

I’m mentioning all the above to illustrate the kind of work we have put in to assist in getting the small business sector to grow and create much needed employment. If small businesses succeed, the country succeed. The National Development has given us a task of creating 11 million jobs by 2030.

9 million of these employment opportunities have to come from small businesses. Often as government, we are accused of throwing money at problems. Without much care and oversight on whether or not the cash we disburse is put into good use and contributes to service delivery. From my department, we are not just disbursing funding, we are taking our processes further.

We are currently in the process of merging SEFA and SEDA, and the Co-operative Banks Development Agency to form one agency so that our funding processes are seamless and user friendly. As many of you noted, during his State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa announced the appointment of a red tape Tsar, to assist us to coordinate between stakeholders to make it easier to start and conduct business and to grow our economy. Although misunderstood by some, we support this initiative and we believe that it will go a long way to remove some of the obstacles encountered by small businesses.

President Ramaphosa made another remark that for no apparent reason, was made controversial. He reminded us that government doesn’t create jobs, the private sector does and that the role of government was to make it easier for entrepreneurs to do business. It is therefore incumbent on us, to harness the hunger and the drive of small businesses to succeed the success of small businesses will lead to a significant reduction in unemployment.

Once again, I appreciate your invitation for me to participate in this important event. My door is always open, for us to collaborate in making this country a better place for our youth, women and all of its citizens.

I thank you.

Source: Government of South Africa