Funding for black empowered companies by the IDC amounted to R40 billion in the past five years and this has promoted the entry of many black South Africans into the economy as shareholders. Over the past five years we have been refocusing investment to support black industrialists namely; black South Africans who either own or control their own companies, not a model of 5% or 10% in another company. This is a significant shift to move away from a passive shareholding model to an active entrepreneurial and industrial model.
Over this period, the IDC committed about R25 billion to enterprises run by black industrialists ranging in sectors such fruit and vegetable processing, refurbishing of trucks, manufacturing of buses and production of medium voltage cables.
Support for youth-empowered enterprises have been boosted strongly with R5,2 billion invested in partnership with more than 120 young entrepreneurs. The sectors where these investments took place include; projects in the making of pet food, production of films and a laboratory