1. The Minister has met with the Chief Executive Officer. The outcome of the meeting was that the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) together with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) will discuss possible areas of cooperation to include amongst other things, mentorship, sharing of research, the ecosystem analysis, etc. Furthermore, it was also agreed that a workshop/summit to discuss available finance for SMMEs in both public and private sector shall be conducted.
2. Government did an analysis on the focus as well as the terms and conditions of the Fund established through the CEO Initiative. Research on the ecosystem conducted by the Department shows that there is limited funding that is available for enterprises that are at an ideation, proof of concept and early start-up phase, and this is the category that is not going to be supported by the fund set up through the CEO initiative. Therefore, government will proceed with its plans of setting up a fund that will address this particular gap in the market and to ensure that Radical Economic Transformation is realised. National Treasury will be best positioned to respond regarding the exact dates of committing funding to the Enterprise Development Fund that government is working on.