South Africa’s township and rural entrepreneurs are stepping into the formal economy in record numbers. More than 400,000 informal and micro businesses have now been captured on the Department of Small Business Development’s DSBD Connect System, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced at a briefing on Sunday.
“Registration of informal and micro businesses is continuing. To date, more than 400,000 businesses have been captured on the DSBD Connect System, and the implementation of the plan will increase the number of registered businesses,” Kubayi said.
A digital front door for small business
DSBD Connect is a digital platform designed to help the department support spaza shops and small enterprises, opening the way for owners to access funding and form partnerships with original equipment manufacturers.
For hundreds of thousands of business owners who have long operated outside formal systems, registration is the first step towards bank accounts, supplier relationships, and government support programmes that were previously out of reach.
The Department of Small Business Development, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs are finalising a Project Implementation Plan to expand the registration drive even further, Kubayi said.
R500 million behind the counter
The registration milestone builds on government’s wider push to strengthen township and rural economies. Earlier this year, the DSBD and SALGA rolled out a nationwide outreach campaign to help qualifying spaza shop owners apply for the R500 million Spaza Shop Support Fund, offering practical guidance on meeting application requirements, improving compliance and accessing funding to grow their enterprises.
The fund forms part of government’s commitment to increasing the participation of South African-owned spaza shops in township and rural retail, tackling one of the biggest barriers facing informal businesses: the paperwork and compliance hurdles that keep them from accessing support.
The backbone of local economies
Spaza shops and micro enterprises are the beating heart of South Africa’s neighbourhood economies, providing daily essentials, local jobs and first rungs on the entrepreneurial ladder. Every business captured on DSBD Connect is a business that can now be seen, supported and helped to grow.
With registration continuing and implementation plans being finalised, the 400,000 milestone looks set to be just the beginning of a bigger, better supported small business sector.
More details are available from SAnews.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
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