Industrial company Barloworld has announced the launch of a new flagship development programme designed to power the growth of social enterprises in South Africa. Seeking to inspire a world of difference, and enable growth and progress in society, the new Barloworld Mbewu programme will pioneer a new approach to growing social enterprises and driving sustainable change in South Africa.
The Barloworld Mbewu programme will co-ordinate financial and nonfinancial support to carefully selected, viable social enterprises across South Africa. “We’ve relooked our approach to social investment with the aim of maximising social value creation and we believe that social enterprises are an ideal vehicle to further contribute to inclusive growth” says Dominic Sewela, Chief Executive of Barloworld. “Barloworld Mbewu will not only support selected social enterprises by helping facilitate access to funding and finance, the programme looks at the unique need of the social enterprise and develops individualised support to help scale up social value creation” he added.
The Barloworld Mbewu programme will seek to build a network of key stakeholders, both public and private, to support capacity building and incubation, and measurable growth of players in the Social Economy space.
Programme beneficiaries will be selected from social enterprise start-ups and established social businesses with proven income streams and potential for scalability.
The programme will focus on marginalised communities with a specific focus on rural and township economies. The focus will be on Social Enterprises that are active in education, agriculture, environment and green economy, the automotive value chain and social innovations that uplift and empower local communities.
“Barloworld’s group strategy takes a focussed approach to long-term value creation for all our stakeholders, and the new Barloworld Mbewu programme is fully aligned with this strategy because we believe that
when our communities grow, we also grow,” says Sewela
Qualifying organisations may apply to become part of the Barloworld Mbewu programme at http://www.barloworld.com.
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