WC Government SMME Booster Fund supported 205 businesses in 2023

Joint Media Release: Western Cape Government SMME Booster Fund supported 205 businesses, enabling almost 800 jobs in just one year

As the engines of job creation, the Western Cape Government (WCG) is determined to back Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprises (SMMEs), to enable them to get set up, expand and create many more jobs across the province.

Speaking at RLabs in Mitchells Plain, one of the intermediary organisations supported through the Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s SMME Booster Fund, Premier Alan Winde had the opportunity to meet with some of the business owners who have been assisted through the fund.

“In the 2023/24 financial year alone, through our SMME Booster Fund, we have supported 205 SMMEs and 8 organisations with R9.52 million, which has helped to sustain 792 jobs. In Mitchells Plain since 2022 and with the help of RLabs, 83 small businesses have been empowered with the skills and support they need to succeed,” said Premier Alan Winde.

The SMME Booster Fund provides financial support to organisations that implement business development support projects and/or programmes aimed at growing and developing SMMEs.

“We will continue to offer SMMEs support wherever we can. Engaging with these business owners today gave me so much hope. These bright, ambitious entrepreneurs are crucial to our collective job creation efforts and they are destined to go far,” added Premier Winde.

All manner of entrepreneurs can access the fund.

Dr Chanell Marthinussen started MyPocketHealth in 2020. It is a virtual care platform that connects patients to healthcare providers. She said, “The fund helped us access about 30 other businesses which allowed us to expand.”

Third Element Holdings is a waste management business that got up-and-running in 2019. With assistance from the fund, owner Dylan Botes has been able to purchase more equipment. “I am very grateful for all the WCG and its fund has done to help us. Thank you so much,” he told Premier Winde.

The fund focuses on projects and/or programmes that support Western Cape-based SMMEs and leverages a co-funding implementation model to encourage collaboration and partnerships.

“I am incredibly proud of the work done through the SMME Booster Fund and the invaluable contributions it has made to supporting and enabling our SMMEs. Over the last five years since 2019, we have helped over 950 SMMEs, sustaining 4 977 jobs, dedicating R85, 5 million to these essential engines of economic growth and job creation,” said Provincial Minister of Finance and economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger.

The support provided by the fund enables the selected organisations to enhance their projects and programmes with an added element of technical support.

 The fund has supported projects and programmes that focus on the following categories:

 Category 1:  Export Development

Category 2:  Women-owned Business

Category 3:  Youth-owned Businesses

Category 4:  Township-based Businesses

Business development support offered by the fund includes training, mentoring, coaching, financial planning, assisting with compliance, providing financial assistance, facilitating access to finance, providing technical support in the form of equipment, specialised software and licensing etc. The financial support from the SMME Booster Fund will focus only on the technical support aspect of the project and/or programme.

 The rollout of the other aspects such as training, mentoring, coaching, access to market interventions etc. is to be funded by the organisation applying for funding.

New applicants to the fund can find out more information by emailing DEDAT.Boosterenquiries@westerncape.gov.za or calling 021-483 - 9112.

 “We are more determined than ever to make the Western Cape the easiest place to do business in the country, and even on the continent. We have more work to do but with the successes of the SMME Booster Fund we are on to a great thing and will continue to work with the private sector, big and small, to achieve the kind of break-out economic growth we need to create thousands of new jobs, lifting people out of poverty and into prosperity in the Western Cape and South Africa,” concluded Minister Wenger.