HELPING SMALL BUSINESS - THE ONE-STOP SHOP


Small business development is not on track in South Africa, yet it represents a massive opportunity for job creation and the eradication of poverty.

The Democratic Alliance has determined that there exists a great need for the introduction of a "one-stop shop" for enterprise development in South Africa. With broad geographical representation, this concept could contribute greatly to small business development and fighting unemployment. I have today at Parliament presented a detailed proposal in this regard to the media.

Currently there are a multitude of small business development agencies with limited geographical coverage and mandates that only serve to complicate small business development rather than promoting it.

Problems with SEDA:
Government may argue that it has already established the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) to take care of the problem, but in reality there is a range of things that SEDA ought to do, but does not:

• SEDA offices are often not particularly accessible for those who do not have private transport or branded in any way to make it recognisable
• SEDA does not seem to communicate with local authorities to integrate local economic development initiatives into their programmes and assistance efforts.
• Potential entrepreneurs without an appointment to see a SEDA consultant risked being turned away, as SEDA does not seem to function as a walk-in service, but rather seems to identify potential entrepreneurs that it deemed suitable to benefit from its programmes.
• There was no printed promotional or information material available in the office.

The DA's solution:
The DAs vision is for an enterprise development agency to be established with the following six objectives in mind:

1. actively to recruit potential entrepreneurs into establishing small business;
2. to develop, support, counsel and assist potential entrepreneurs in the establishment of new businesses;
3. to communicate and market the plethora of enterprise development services, products, assistance packages and organisations to potential entrepreneurs in an integrated manner;
4. broker access to and facilitate surety for enterprise development services, products, assistance packages;
5. actively engage enterprise development and enterprise development finance institutions and product owners from all sectors to co-ordinate with one another, to facilitate the identification of new opportunities for enterprise development and to identify gaps in service provision and product lines; and,
6. actively to engage local municipalities in terms of local economic development policies, strategies, industry-specific master plans and the identification of opportunities and threats in terms of SMME development at local level.

The South African Employment report states that in 2005, large established businesses created only 10% of all new jobs. Should Government establish an enterprise development agency along these lines then it may well succeed in leveraging the significant job creating power of small businesses in a much more powerful way.

Download supporting documents (Streamling The DTI - A One Stop Shop.doc)