The Minister of Small Business Development of South Africa, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and Vuyo Lee, director for marketing & corporate affairs at JSE. Picture: JSE Group X page
“Partnership is key to ensure that there are 9 million jobs from the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) by 2030 as included in the National development plan,” said Minister of Small Business Development of South Africa, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
The minister was delivering her keynote address at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) SME Rise celebration on Friday in Sandton.
The room was filled with tens of entrepreneurs, who have hopes of one day growing their businesses into empires.
Cleola Kunene, JSE’s Head of SME Development said it gives her great pleasure to see how far the entrepreneurs who were part of the 2023 JSE Cohort team have come. The JSE SME Rise program was established with the purpose of giving SMEs support.
Through this program, small business owners can meet investors through increased visibility and stronger credibility. She emphasised that small businesses will be able to gain growing solutions, connect with private companies, and get international expansion.
Vuyo Lee, director for marketing & corporate affairs said they will be looking into provinces such as the Free State and the Eastern Cape for the 2024 intake. Going forward they will look into other provinces. They will also increase the number of companies they will support to 25.
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The minister said she and her department are committed to ensuring that they reach the employment target that has been set in the National development plan. However, one of the ways to reach the target is through partnership.
She added partnerships like the JSE SME Rise program can accelerate many SMEs growth in the country, while also solving the unemployment rate in the country. She shone the spotlight the JSE program said it is not a goal, but a commitment.
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She said one of the issues is business owners who approach her and ask her “Minister, what can you help us with?”, she said it shows that people venture into entrepreneurship without doing the necessary research into the type of business they will be going into.
At her department, they have noticed that people will apply for funding without the necessary documents or apply for funding that has nothing to do with their businesses. She asked stakeholders to provide a roadmap for applying for funding from the department to help small business owners.
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