Deadline: 07-Jun-21
The Government of South Africa is pleased to announce that applications have opened for the 2021 SMME Booster Fund to organisations and municipalities for programmes that focus on supporting small businesses to grow and improve their sustainability so they can create more jobs in the Western Cape.
Run by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the SMME Booster Fund 2021 is calling for any existing SMME business development projects based in the Western Cape, especially those that support rural, township-based, youth and women-owned businesses to apply.
Categories
The submitted proposals must be structured towards one of the following categories:
- Category 1: Businesses Development Support programmes with a focus on assisting SMMEs that, are youth owned, women-owned and owned by individuals living with disabilities (including social enterprises). The intervention will provide financial support to enhance and/or expand existing programmes that provide business development support such as mentorship, coaching, marketing, operational support, capacity building and business support training to SMMEs. Programmes only focused on providing training and capacity building will not be considered.
- Category 2: Access to Markets – Support to businesses that want to access economic opportunities in both the public and private sector. The nature of support will focus on the following categories within access to markets:
- Corporates, business incubators and/or organisations directly implementing Enterprise and Supplier Development programmes.
- Organisations involved in import replacement and/or export promotion/development as part of supply chains are also included in this category. The intervention will provide support to organisations and who have existing export support programmes that develops the capacity of current and potential export ready SMMEs to build their competitive capacity.
- Systems improvements to increase businesses taking up procurement opportunities (especially within municipalities).
- Category 3: SMME Infrastructure Support and enhancement by municipalities that develops SMME activities. This category is open to municipalities only. The intervention will provide the requisite support to municipalities to develop, improve, upgrade and/or maintain trading related infrastructure (new and/or existing and movable and immovable) (e.g. trading spaces, storage and refrigeration, etc.) for the benefit of SMMEs with an emphasis on the township and informal sector within rural and urban areas.
Funding Information
- The Fund will distribute up to R20 million.
Eligibility Criteria
- The SMME Booster Fund is just one of the many ways that they are supporting small businesses in the Western Cape.
- I look forward to seeing the many success stories that will emerge from the 2021 SMME Booster Fund and encourage all relevant organisations in the Western Cape to apply.
For more information, visit https://www.gov.za/speeches/smme-booster-fund-2021-13-may-2021-0000#