The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and Eastern Cape Development Corporation’s Enterprise Development Programme has reached a historic milestone as it marks 10 years of empowering Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the Eastern Cape, since its inception in 2014.
The programme underscores commitment to supporting entrepreneurship to drive economic development and job creation. It has also played a pivotal role in fostering growth, sustainability and innovation within the province’s business landscape.
Over the past decade, it has benefitted 218 businesses over 8 cohorts. To ensure the businesses are sustainable, a baseline assessment was conducted to evaluate business progress and development after graduating in the programme, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid19 virus and the subsequent lockdown as a consequence which had devastating effects on business. The results showed that 162 businesses were still operational while others have seized operating due to various factors. A decision was therefore taken to further support these 162 MSMEs to ensure they are not only sustainable but are growing and create employment opportunities in an economy with characterized by slow economic growth and high unemployment.
“As per the project implementation plan, the ED programme was twofold. Firstly, it offered group workshops which were conducted at the Chamber and via virtual platforms. The sessions were designed to equip the participants with critical knowledge and skills necessary for business growth and sustainability. Secondly, it offered one-on-one business needs analysis and advisory support wherein appointed service providers dived in deeper to each business to identify challenges and gaps, and developed SMART goals with each MSME,” says Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen.
In the 2023/24 financial period, the programme has enrolled and supported 54 MSMEs who operate in the service sector. The largest proportion of the participants are from the events, conferencing and catering industry, followed by the consulting service industry (19%), transport and logistics (17%), training and development (17%), cleaning services (11%), health and fitness (4%) and ICT (1%).
Through the programme, the MSMEs have created 73 employment opportunities, secured 9 contracts with various medium and large sized companies, four moved into new operational premises, 7 secured funding towards their growth and sustainability, 10 reported increase on their sales/revenue as a result of refining their business strategies, models, better communication and advertising.
“Entrepreneurship is by no means an easy path to pursue. But through out of the box thinking, perseverance and adopting an agile approach – and building resilience – it is possible to create something new or to fill a gap. In fact, out of this crisis, there is always opportunity,” she says.
“We are willing to collaborate with whoever will do the right thing and put our local economy and its people first. And on this score, I would like to thanks the ECDC for their partnership on the enterprise development.”
ECDC senior manager for entrepreneurship and business support Mpumi Fundam says the enterprise development programme is critical to addressing the sustainability and competitiveness of small businesses. It also falls in within the ECDC’s goal of promoting the profitability of small enterprises with job creation as the ultimate product of these initiatives.
“When the ECDC initiated the programme, it reached out to the Chamber because it has the necessary ecosystem to support enterprise development. In seeking to address the skills gap and the business acumen of small businesses, the Chamber partnership became a logical collaboration as it presented an ideal opportunity to link small businesses with big business which forms part of its membership.
“The partnership creates another market access platform because big business can become a customer base for emerging entrepreneurs. The intention is to help these small businesses grow and also prepare them for the ECDC’s funding instruments and incentives among others. This intervention is therefore significant as it addresses the weaknesses that lead to small business failure in the first three years,” says Fundam.