Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as a Means of Creating Employment and Poverty Reduction in Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akeem Adewale Oyelana ◽  
Emmanuel Olusola Adu
2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard L. Ngota ◽  
Eric E. Mang'unyi ◽  
Sookdhev Rajkaran

This study examines factors inhibiting African immigrant entrepreneurs’ small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) growth in a municipality of South Africa. Understanding these factors is important to stakeholders as this is an area that plagues much of the immigrant entrepreneurship literature. The study is descriptive in nature, and data were sourced from active African immigrant entrepreneurs through a quantitative approach. Random sampling was used to identify a total of 75 businesses. The results indicated that access to credit from regulated financial institutions is a mirage and that Afrophobic attacks on businesses dwindles prospects of entrepreneurship, job and wealth creation, thus impacting on economic growth of the region. To help bring ‘long-lasting’ co-existence between immigrant entrepreneurs and natives, formulation and implementation of ‘liberal’ integrated public policy interventions and strategies are needed. This would help in having a positive impact on the region’s prosperity in terms of job creation, poverty reduction and economic growth, in turn improving the peoples’ well-being. Given the migratory patterns and greater human global mobility, debate on integrated approaches among or within government systems should never be obscure as it is one of the biggest challenges in the continent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olawale Fatoki

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role to play in a country’s sustainable development. The measures of a country’s sustainable development include economic and social factors. The sustainability of small and medium enterprises is vital to job creation, poverty reduction, and sustainable economic growth. The high failure rate of SMEs negatively impacts on South Africa’s sustainable development. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and the success of SMEs in South Africa. Success was measured using both organisational and individual criteria. The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) was used to measure entrepreneurial resilience. Data was collected from 170 small business owners through the survey method. The self-administered questionnaire method was used to collect data from the participants. Convenience and snowball methods were used for sampling. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, and regression analysis were used for data analysis. Cronbach’s alpha was used as a measure of reliability. The results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and individual and organisational success. Ways to enhance the resilience of small business owners in order to ensure the sustainability of SMEs are suggested.


Author(s):  
Lelethu Mdoda ◽  
Ajuruchukwu Obi

Smallholder irrigation farming is transformative to poor households as they improve livelihoods and alleviate poverty but little has been done to quantify their profitability. The present study assessed the profitability of smallholder irrigated crop farmers in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and ascertained their determinants. A multi-stratified technique was employed to select 120 smallholder irrigated crop farmers. Data were analysed using gross margin and multiple regression models. Results showed that crop production is profitable. Farm experience, years spent in school, access to credit, distance to markets, and tractor use were found to have a bearing on the profitability of the irrigated crop farmers. Based on the results, crop farming is identified as crucial for jobs and poverty reduction.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson Mbedzi ◽  
Munacinga Simatele

Orientation: As lack of access to credit hinders small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) success and lending technologies being conduits transmit credit access, more focus must be on the effect of lending technologies on credit rationing.Research purpose: To analyse the extent of credit rationing amongst SMMEs based on lender and firm characteristics.Motivation for the study: In South Africa, SMMEs are funded by different lenders using different lending technologies, but little is known about which ones are more effective.Research approach/design and method: The study takes a quantitative approach. In this study, 321 SMMEs are sampled from 1486 small businesses on the registers of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and the Border-Kei Chamber of Business in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Financing of SMMEs is captured with a categorical credit-rationing variable. Accordingly, a logit technique is used. The first model captures credit rationing as a binary variable. In the second model, the nature of credit rationing is disaggregated resulting in a four-measure categorical variable.Main findings: Little rationing occurs when asset-based and venture capital methods are used. Microfinance and privately owned development financial institutions have high rationing levels, similar to commercial banks, defeating the purpose of their special existence to address excluded groups. Black people-owned and female-owned businesses are the most rationed. Credit rationing decreases with firm size, but the effects are amplified by race.Practical/managerial implications: To improve SMMEs access to finance, the government should focus on allocating funds to firms using SMMEs’ credit rationing risk profiles.Contribution/value-add: Lending technology, lender type and SMME characteristics relationships indicate that SMMEs can benefit from a well-understood rationing risk profile of firms in the economy. Therefore, policies on support and regulation of the distribution of loan portfolios aligned to empirical rationing risk profiles can improve SMME growth. However, this study has used SMME data from the Eastern Cape province only, one of the nine provinces in South Africa. Thus, the provincial heterogeneity effects are not captured in this study.


Mousaion ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charleen Musonza ◽  
Ndakasharwa Muchaonyerwa

This study examines the influence of knowledge management (KM) practices on public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The study sought to determine the factors that have triggered the implementation of KM practices; the effectiveness of KM practices towards public service delivery; and the extent to which KM practices have influenced public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. Quantitative data were collected through a survey questionnaire administered to a sample of 202 employees at the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality in the Eastern Cape. Qualitative data were collected through observations and interviews of 2 senior managers. The data collected gave a response rate of 72 per cent. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed descriptively and presented verbatim respectively. The results indicated that the internal and external factors included in this study have contributed to the implementation of KM practices in the municipality. Furthermore, the effective use of KM practices has increased the organisational KM initiative, as well as the provision of services such as electricity, education, transport, and social services by the municipality. The study recommends the establishment of KM awareness and the establishment of an integrated system that will assist in effective knowledge sharing, retention and acquisition across municipalities in the Eastern Cape.


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