EAST LONDON – The Department of Small Business Development and Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality hosted a Ministerial Imbizo in East London, City Hall on 08 September 2023. Minister of small business development Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams addressed issues that are faced by small business owners and handed over 63 Equipment to small businesses on the day.
The event’s goal was to draw attention to some of the problems faced by small business owners including the lack of land availability. The fact that it takes time for them to hear back from the department about funding after they have applied for financial assistance and the fact that one of the most important things for entrepreneurs is market accessibility.
Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams delivering keynote address at Imbizo emphasized that there are policies that must be effectively implemented when requesting financial aid from the department.
Minster mentioned that they are working hard to ensure that small business owners don’t have to deal with lots of paperworks and that as a department, they are closely collaborating with various municipalities to ensure that there is special planning of land thus there can be development.
In addition Ndabeni-Abrahams emphasised, “We are developing a system a digital platform that has all the SMMEs stakeholders to assist small business owners, because in order for them to be complaint they need to go to SARS, UIF, SETA, NEF, CIPC, HOME AFFAIRS, POLICE, NEF and having these stakeholders in one platform will make things easier for them and that this will also help the department as there is an influx of illegal licensing.”
About 63 equipments were handed over to small business owners by the minister, amongst the beneficiaries being Ngebendwana from Silver town Mdantsane, “I am happy with the equipment that I received because it will make things easier for me and my employees, I received deep freezer, air fryer and potato peeler. I was really struggling because I was using gas stove to fry and knives to peel, these will really make a big change for us,” said Ngebendwana.
The Minister wrapped up the day off by saying they really encourage small entrepreneurs to make use of technology for marketing their products and using social media as they can access a wide range of audience and that they also need to make a collaborations with one another for growth.
Small business owners were left in high hopes and spirits when they were handed over equipments for their business and eagerly positive that their grievances were heard.
