By BAKANG MOKOTO
18 June 2025 – The Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development said it has welcomed presentations on the 2025-2030 strategic and 2025/26 annual performance plans of the Department of Small Business Development and the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (SEDFA). The committee said the presentations tabled three strategic objectives to be achieved by both the department and SEDFA by 2030, namely the creation of 3.8 million jobs, 3 trillion in investment in medium, small and micro enterprises and contribution to 3% GDP growth.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Masefako Dikgale said, however, the committee raised concern about the department’s incubators and intermediaries in the service value-chain to the medium, small and micro enterprises sector, saying that the department needs to monitor them closely and implement consequence management where there are failures. Dikgale said their position on incubators and intermediaries was informed by unfavourable feedback that they received from beneficiaries on the ground during the committee’s oversight visits to the Northern Cape and Limpopo.
“The department and SEDFA’s strategic plans are anchored in the 2024-2029 Medium-Term Development Plan of the 7th administration, which outlines three strategic priorities, namely driving inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living and building a capable, ethical and developmental state.
“Accordingly, both of them will be contributing directly to strategic priority one, to lift economic growth to above 3% and reduce unemployment to below 28% by 2030,” she said.
Dikgale said the committee will meet to deliberate on the department’s proposed budget for the 2025/26 financial year, which is spread across four programmes. She added that, the names of the programmes are Administration, with a proposed budget of R199.9 million, Sector Policy and Research, with a proposed budget of R81.9 million.
“This includes Integrated Co-operatives and Micro-Enterprise Development, with a proposed budget of R489.2 million; and Enterprise Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, with a proposed budget of R2.147 billion,” said Dikgale.
The Guardian 