The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) and its agencies, the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) are hosting the Inaugural National Presidential SMME and Co-operatives Awards, in Bryanston Johannesburg on 13 November 2022. Nominations are now open until 04 November 2022, and entrants are encouraged to get their nominations in ahead of the closing date.
The awards are in partnership with the Ecosystem Development for Small Enterprises (EDSE), the European Union and 22 On Sloane. The National Presidential SMME and Co-operatives Awards aim to cultivate an enabling environment for the development; and nurturing of innovative ideas and best practices across the whole spectrum of small business development in the country. The awards will recognise and celebrate outstanding SMMEs, SMME Financiers, Entrepreneur Support Organisations and Success Stories from Enterprise Supplier Development Programmes. Additionally, the DSBD aims to award businesses that have shown resilience and have managed to sustain operations during and post the COVID 19 pandemic.
The awards will also serve as a platform to launch the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022 (GEW). This global event is celebrated in over 200 countries with over 10 000 partners and 40 000 activities. Furthermore, GEW aims to inspire nations to empower entrepreneurs and encourage citizens to become self-starters by finding innovative ways of doing business. GEW is a call to action for societies to promote resilience and leverage the power of new ideas to impact societies globally.
“We are incredibly proud to be hosting this celebration of entrepreneurial excellence to showcase entrepreneurial activities through identifying and showcasing innovative stakeholders that are driving economic development and job creations”, says Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the Minister of Small Business Development.
Furthermore, the DSBD and its agencies will also host the Inaugural National Presidential SMMEs and Co-operatives Summit on 14 – 15 November 2022. The primary focus of the Summit will be to solicit tangible inputs on areas of potential collaboration from key role players in the small enterprise ecosystem as guided by the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development (NISED) Masterplan. The NISED Masterplan represents a national strategy that will coordinate government efforts in partnership with the private sector to build a supportive ecosystem for small enterprises to thrive and grow. To implement the NISED Masterplan successfully, the Department needs to coordinate all role players, and the Summit aims to solidify and negotiate collaboration and partnership in the implementation of the NISED Masterplan as the guiding national strategy for small enterprise development. Government intends to host the summit every two years following the adoption of the NISED Masterplan.
Nominations for the Inaugural National Presidential SMME and Co-operatives Awards are open and will close on Friday 04 November 2022. The award prizes consist of cash prizes worth R100 000 to winning SMMEs and Co-operatives and access to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress Africa which will take place on 13 – 14 September 2023 in Cape Town.
Source: Government of South Africa