While the South African Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) is one of the lead departments for one of the priority interventions of government’s Nine-Point Plan to boost economic growth and create much-needed jobs – unlocking the potential of small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs), cooperatives and township and rural enterprises – there is potential for SMMEs in other areas of the plan, says Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu.

The plan’s focus areas include resolving the energy challenge the country is facing; revitalising agriculture and the agroprocessing value chain; advancing beneficiation or adding value to mineral wealth; more effective implementation of a higher-impact Industrial Policy Action Plan; encouraging private-sector investment; moderating workplace conflict; State reform and boosting the role of State-owned companies; information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure or broadband roll-out; water, sanitation and transport infrastructure; and Operation Phakisa, aimed at growing the oceans economy and other sectors.

“The focus of SMMEs and cooperatives should be to [consider] what is available in all these areas, and the responsibility of this department is to make sure that the agenda of SMMEs is understood by these areas,” Zulu said.

She provided an overview of the department’s agenda in advancing SMME and cooperative development through entrepreneurship, in line with the aspirations of the National Development Plan (NDP) and government’s plan of action in growing the economy, at a public lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand Business School, in Johannesburg, Gauteng, earlier this month.

With government focusing on key job drivers in high-impact centres, such as mining, agriculture, ICT, manufacturing, industrialisation and infrastructure development, the DSBD has prioritised these sectors, as well as the creative arts, informal business and artisans, as important parts of the economy, Zulu added.

Further, the DSBD, in pursuit of the NDP Vision 2030, which sets out a target of creating 11-milllion jobs by 2030, has set a target of increasing the number of jobs created by the small-business sector from 7.1-million to 9.2-million by 2019.

Zulu also highlighted government’s determination to build a nation of entrepreneurs, as they “are vital to the economy . . . look for unmet needs in society and . . . will fill them with new good services”.

She added that partnerships in small business development and entrepreneurship should also be considered with universities, faith-based organisations, chambers of commerce, traditional leaders, professional organisations and commercial banks. Importantly, these partnerships should include communities, as they are key clients of these enterprises.

“Partnership is about communities beginning to understand the importance of the younger generation understanding the value of money, but also about us assisting them to think broadly . . . it is there at school level that issues of small business and entrepreneurship, in particular, must be encouraged,” she emphasised.

While the DSBD emphasises the importance of entrepreneurship in education, it also intends to accelerate the growth and competitiveness of small businesses through its flagship programme, the DSBD and Small Enterprise Development Agency-facilitated National Gazelles.

This programme will support the growth of 40 high-potential small and medium-sized enterprises (Gazelles) a year for the next ten years.

This year’s Gazelles are found in strategic and productive sectors, such as manufacturing, mining, metals and engineering, tourism, transport and logistics, agriculture and agroprocessing, energy and the green economy, as well as health.

“The concept of the Gazelles is widely implemented in high-efficiency economies . . . where high-growth businesses are propelled and accelerated to achieve higher growth targets within a short space of time through focus and specialised intervention,” Zulu said, concluding that the programme could be a feeder to the Department of Trade and Industry’s Black Industrialist programme.