S.African black business gets funding boost

JOHANNESBURG, S. Africa: Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — The National Empowerment Fund (NEF) has signed a deal with the Black Business Council (BBC) to fund black businesses as the country is moving towards economic transformation.

“The NEF and BBC seek to bring about the growth and transformation of the South African economy, ensuring that black people are located meaningfully at the strategic and operational centre of the economy,” NEF Chief Executive Philsiwe Buthelezi said in Johannesburg.

The NEF is a government agency established to advance black economic empowerment in South Africa, while the BBC is a coalition of black business associations in the country.BBC Chief Executive Xolani Qubeka said the two organizations will work together to explore the development of an enterprise development fund in accordance with the agreement.

Since 2004, the NEF has supported about 29, 000 jobs through black empowerment. A latest BBC research shows that black people who comprise over 80 percent of the population, own about three percent of the South African economy in terms of market capitalization on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

“What this means is that it remains a critical obligation and an imperative to restore the economic citizenship of black people, commensurate with national demographics in South Africa,” Buthelezi said.

South Africa’s ruling party Africa National Congress (ANC) has advocated for radical economic policy change that will ensure more economic power for blacks to pave way for economic growth in Africa’s richest nation where the majority of blacks are still economically disadvantaged.

“The role of the BBC is to promote and facilitate the effective participation of black entrepreneurs across all levels of the economy,” BBC President Ndaba Ntsele said.

“This grant funding by the NEF will enable the BBC to establish foundational structures and to build capacity so that we may optimize our effectiveness in policy-formulation, and thereby increase our ability to roll out critical national campaigns,” Ntsele told journalists after signing the deal.

Buthelezi said the NEF’s partnership with BBC will help “grow black industrialists across many sectors of the economy, and to tackle our country’s huge industrial backlog by pursuing opportunities in the economic value chain in critical infrastructure and industries, through existing and new enterprises.”

These sectors targeted include renewable energy, tourism, mining, minerals beneficiation, agri-processing, business process outsourcing and infrastructural projects, Buthelezi said.

Paul Mashegoane, chairman of SELTG, a Johannesburg-based youth development group, said economic transformation is a requirement in South Africa. “The country needs to ensure that black are part of this through implementation of better policies,” he told Xinhua.  (Xinhua)