Boost your business – secure responsible finance

Kokela Silimela (far left) of the CMDA’s LED department
recently took a group of potential business partners
to the container park in Cato Crest.

Responsible financial aid is vital for small businesses. With this in mind the Local Economic Development department of CMDA has re-evaluated the Small Business Loans Project and decided on a more effective way to conduct the project.

The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), a non-profit financial aid company, has joined forces with CMDA’s LED department for the purpose of extending business loans. Before a business is given a loan it will have to go through a screening process conducted by a selection committee comprising members of the LED sub-committee, LED members and members from the Entrepreneurial Support Centre. Explaining the criteria that potential borrowers will have to meet, Kokela Silimela from CMDA said: “The selection committee will be looking for businesses with potential and which are in need of that little nudge in the right direction. Fuel injection is what this project will provide.”The most important aspect of the loan is that a business must be able to provide 20% security of the loan they require. The good news is that CMDA will provide half of that 20%.
LED cautioned that the project will be undertaken in stages. “Being a new project, we need to take a handful of businesses at a time, help them, identify problem areas and then move on to the next group,” said Silimela.

To find out more about this project contact Chris Khumalo at (031) 261 1318.

Help for community enterprises
by Gugu Mzimela

Snowflake Bake for Profit, a project designed to alleviate poverty
and increase employment opportunity has gone a step ahead to
ensure that SMME’s are not exploited.

The Cato Manor Bake For Profit Project held its first Indaba Day since its launch some two years ago. Various motivational speakers from all corners of South Africa graced the occasion to encourage the people who have enrolled on the programme.

Emerging business people were encouraged to form co-operatives. “Although the word co-op in this country is associated with poor people and the hard times of apartheid, many people would sooner forget the word - but it has advantages,” said Cebisile Mhlanga of German Co-operative and Raiffeisen Confederation (DGRV)
The DGRV is actively involved in encouraging and motivating emerging business people to form community co-operatives and buying groups.

According to Cebsile, co-operatives can form buying co-operatives or clubs. This type of co-op is self-explanatory. It puts members in an advantageous position where they can buy their stock in bulk at a lower price e.g. 20 bakers from all parts of Cato Manor can form a buying co-operative, but can still trade independently and competitively.

The idea behind a buying co-op is to form a village bank which gives members the buying power to afford an industrial oven.

To facilitate this process Snowflake has enlisted the services of Frontline Marketing to help buying clubs get their ingredients at cost prices.