Durban - Rural-based small businesses on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast are set to benefit from an outreach programme led by the Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube, which will be held in the Ugu District on Friday.
A statement on Thursday said the provincial Treasury’s SMMEs Outreach Programme follows the success of the uThukela Youth-In-Business Outreach Programme.
The department said the programme aimed to assist rural-based SMMEs and small businesses with the challenges they faced when attempting to access funding and sustain their businesses.
The department’s Central Suppliers Database unit, Operation-Pay-On-Time and supply chain management as well as outside stakeholders such as the National Youth Development Agency, Ithala, South African Revenue Service and an assortment of other business services bodies are expected to have exhibition stands at the programme.
Dube-Ncube said SMMEs and other small businesses had borne the brunt of Covid-19 and last July’s unrest which had left them in bad shape.
“This has affected mostly rural businesses, especially those owned by Africans residing in far flung areas,” she said.
The MEC said these include businesses in small towns that often struggled with access to information on how to efficiently run their businesses, and how to access business finance.
She said these SMMEs also suffered from a lack of information related to government’s supply chain protocols.
Dube-Ncube said the entire package of information was sacrosanct in order to mitigate the high rate of unemployment that mostly affected the province and the country.
The programme will take place on August 5 at 10am at the Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre in the Ray Nkonyeni Local Municipality.