The SME sector globally has been playing a major role towards sustainable economic growth and development, thus it is not surprising that SMEs collectively are responsible for a significant percentage of some countries’ Gross Domestic Product.  Thus the Governments of South Africa and Botswana provide a cocktail of assistance to their respective SMEs sector.

South Africa: Through the Small Enterprises Development Agency provides the following support to SMEs:

• Business Advisory
• Partial Financial Assistance
• On-line business courses for new start-ups
• Import and export information sharing

Botswana: 

 The Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) provides a holistic approach to the development and promotion of viable sustainable citizen-owned enterprises.

This is done through the provision of financial assistance in the form of loans at subsidised interest rates, and back-up business training and mentoring services to enhance the sustainability of these enterprises.

• CEDA lends from P500 to P150 000 at 5% interest per annum payable over a period of five (5) years for the small scale category of enterprises.
• CEDA lends from P150 001 to P2 million at 7.5% interest per annum payable over a period of 7 years for medium scale enterprises.
• A Venture Capital fund has recently been established that is intended to facilitate funding of projects that could be both locally and foreign owned.

The CEDA Venture Capital Fund (CEDA - VCF) provides risk capital to financially viable start ups, expanding businesses owned by citizens and joint ventures between citizens and foreigners in all sectors of the economy. The CEDA-VCF helps to relieve the equity capital constraint, which affects most citizen investors. The Venture Capital Fund will usually not be involved in the day- to- day management of the business, but will seek to add value to a growing business by giving direction to the business venture it has invested in through regular contact and discussions with management.