Small businesses critical to growing economy
According to Masina, in order for SMMEs to grow into sustainable businesses, large enterprises need to invest in their growth.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mzwandile Masina, said Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMME’s) are significant drivers of job creation and economic growth.
The Deputy Minister was speaking at the Africa Sourcing and Enterprise Summit.
The Africa Sourcing and Enterprise Summit has been formed to help stimulate discussions for a global programme that will drive enterprise development culture in governments, businesses and societies in general, with the aim of inspiring effective development and job creation.
According to Mr Masina, in order for SMMEs to grow into sustainable businesses, large enterprises need to invest in their growth.
He said the private sector and government need to continue their ongoing dialogue on how to collectively grow and transform the South African economy.
“Transformation in South Africa is critical, especially in the context of the continent. It is important to have the majority of our people playing a major role in ensuring that many previously disadvantaged people are included in the mainstream economy,” said Mr Masina.
Mr Masina called upon the private sector, government and other key institutions to ensure the country doesn’t only speak empowerment for the sake of speaking empowerment.
He added that empowerment must be promoted in presentation, policy formulation and must be articulated in order to ensure that South Africa is moving forward.
“If we don’t speak true empowerment, in our case we will be missing the point to an extent that we will not be able to control those in the majority, the poor and vulnerable,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, the Minister of Trade and Industry in Ghana, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the continent need a Pan African Hub System that will see an aggregation of national single windows for trade and investment, and also an Ecommerce platform for the trading of goods, services and the provision of trade and investment intelligence.
He also said for any business to grow, MSMEs need to exploit information and communications technology to build capacity within the Intra-African Trade within the global market.
“The promotion of transborder business formation, free movement of people and goods, and lifelong education and support to improve firm-level capacity for MSMEs will assist in removing the barriers faced by businesses in the continent,” said Mr Spio-Garbrah.
