As of 2019, around 26.3% of the South African population live in poverty, according to StatsSA. Given the global and local economic outlook, this is expected to increase in the years ahead and depressingly it underscores the structural poverty embedded in our society. In order to find solutions at a micro-level, the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) was established in 1992 by co- founders, John de Wit and Matome Malatji.
SEF is a not-for-profit organization and pro-poor microfinance institution, which works towards the eradication of poverty through the creation of supportive environments, where credit and savings services foster sustainable income generation, job creation and social empowerment within poverty-stricken communities.
SEF assists communities in which people live below the poverty line, by providing them with loans of smaller amounts in order to establish a means of acquiring a salary, or providing funding in order to improve their current small business.
SEF Case Study
Makopetshe Stephena Mmakanyane, 60, is part of the Dikgopheng of the Mogorwane Centre. In 1998 she had started selling chips and this ultimately led to her opening a spaza shop. She joined SEF on the 7th of November 2007. She first heard of SEF from her church friends. She was eager to join, but never got the chance. One day two SEF representatives showed up at her shop wanting to buy refreshments. They told her about SEF and encouraged her to join. She told the representatives how she had been wanting to join, but never managed to find a centre to join. Six weeks later, Mmakanyane was trained on how to save, pay a loan repayment, and run a business – the rest is history.
Mmakanyane is currently utilizing the maximum loan of R25 000 and is eager to qualify for an individual loan. She has employed someone to run her spaza shop and has joined stokvels to add an extra source of income. She wants to increase her loan to be able to own her own Nando’s franchise one day! She credits all her success to her ability to budget. “I never went to school, but I know how to manage my money.”
Mmakanyane says that SEF has helped her fulfil her dreams. She has built her home, which is the venue for her centre’s meetings, from scratch. She has been able to furnish her home with “cash!”, she adds proudly. She bought borehole water for her family home and two cars. As a mother of four, three girls and one boy, she has been able to send all her children to school.
Mmakanyane is the manifestation of Inyosi and SEF’s partnership. Inyosi has provided significant funding to SEF, and SEF has been able to deliver on their vision and mission. Through SEF’s loans, Mmakanyane has been able to build generational wealth for herself, her children and grandchildren by eradicating poverty from her home.
Inyosi Empowerment has been a long-standing funding partner to SEF. The partnership between SEF and Inyosi Empowerment is aimed at the empowerment and development of businesses within marginalized groups within South Africa.
In recognition of a decade’s worth of loan funding and pushing the envelope for black-owned SMMEs within South Africa, Inyosi Empowerment has launched an exclusive business loan funding competition, whereby one black-owned business could win an interest free loan of up to R5 million. This competition is aimed at celebrating the positive impact loan funding can have on the growth of SMME’s and how this in turn spurs on job creation and economic growth in South Africa; the “Inyosi domino effect.”
To enter please go to: https://inyosi.co.za/competition/
