Initiated in 2006 and completed in 2009, this project aimed to spur increased small business contribution to the overall economic growth in the Western Cape Province. The way that the project sought to achive its goal was through supporting small business develpment and financial services.

The initiative managed to reach 23 small businesses, which between them created 85 new jobs in the province. Nearly 80% of these clients received and paid back loans from commercial lenders, and most managed to increase their sales by 10% even against the backdrop of a recession in the province. Project interventions such as the installation of financial systems, help with training and skills development, and assistance in developing policies that strengthened the clients' businesses have helped them to navigate the economic crisis.

The project also sought to strengthen the relationships between buyers and small business suppliers, including increasing volumes of contracts. This set of interventions reached 371 small business suppliers, who have benefitted from increased sales of 10% per buyer. As a result, suppliers have been able to employ more people and increase salaries for existing staff - because they have secure income streams from stable clients. These small businesses accounted for about 9,800 jobs in 2009, of which an estimated 15% were newly created.

Client spotlight

R&E Design, an upholstery, curtain manufacturing and interior design firm owned by Evelyn Zyster, is one business that benefitted from this project. Since the Swisscontact intervention, it has grown to a size where it has created five new full-time jobs and needs to look for new premises because the old ones have become too small to accommodate the thriving business.

The company is now attacting high-calibre clients, including high net worth individuals and prestigious design houses. Swisscontact's help in areas such as compliance with tax and labour laws, as well as in setting up sound financial controls and systems, has played a vital role in R&E Design's growth. Other assistance that Swisscontact offered was help in securing a loan for new delivery vehicle and working capital.

Project Manager Ms. Rozandi Louw: rl@swisscontact.co.za

IFC is implementing a number of projects geared to the development of Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMME) specially addressing the needs of Historically Deprived Individuals (HDI, black owned businesses and women) to access financial services. The South Africa SME Banking program is financed by seco and has three major components. Swisscontact implements the component:
Twin BDS with bank finance: Work with non-bank financial institutions to identify the business services needs of their small business clients, and identify and accredit commercial service providers to meet those needs. The objective of the component is to develop support capacity within financial institutions as well as within external services providers (BDS providers) in order to reduce barriers of access to finance for SMMEs.

Project Manager Mr. Neo Seleke: ns@swisscontact.co.za

Click here for BDS providers contacts

Click here for New Brocure information

Success Stories

"This Project has been concluded and Swisscontact  has handed over the remaining activities to IFC to monitor and evaluate. Interested SMEs are advised to either contact  the IFC directly or one of the BDS Providers from the list provided"

Since 2003, a team of advisors from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), ICON Institute and Swisscontact, have supported the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the South African Local Government Association in tackling local economic development issues.

They are working together to empower local and district municipalities as well as partners in the private sector to initiate local economic development processes and take up economic opportunities, using an efficient, effective and low-cost approach.

Key components of the project are development of local economic development concepts and tools; institutional and human capacity building; and local economic development policy advice, learning and knowledge management. In collaboration with Inwent Capacity Building and the German Development Service, the team nurtured the South African Local Economic Development (LED) Network (www.led.co.za) into a professional, sustainable practitioners’ association with a local economic development knowledge hub.

Close to 1,000 officials, councillors and government decision-makers at provincial and national levels have undergone training to build their capacity in local economic development. The LED project supported the Development Bank of Southern Africa in establishing the Vulindlela Academy as a training provider in South Africa, thus institutionalising local economic development capacity building.

As a result of this project, many key players in the local economic development environment have been armed with the tools and strategies they need to tackle development issues. In addition, the project has created a number of benchmarking tools and standards that allow the capacity and maturity of local economic development across key municipalities to be measured.

Client spotlight
Dr JS Moroka is a rural municipality one hour north of Pretoria that acted as a “human dumping ground” for the Apartheid State’s forced removals. The project worked with the municipality to design a local economic development programme over a 24 month period. Partners in the effort were the municipality, KfW and Development Bank of Southern Africa as funders, and the LED Project.

During the course of the project, a number of projects were identified and are now in their implementation stages. These include the building of a job centre, a crime prevention programme, a waste management project and interventions in the tourism and agricultural sectors.

Project Manager Mrs. Gabriele Trah: trah@ledproject.co.za