Opportunity Issue 97

of risk-mitigating development, upskilling,
business support and asset-building. It also
allows these businesses to build a track
record, credit references and a capital base
that make it possible for them to access the
more traditional sources of finance to facilitate
further expansion.
The fact that we back small businesses
completely on a risk basis is partly what sets us
apart, but it also demands “skin-in-the-game”
on the part of entrepreneurs.
What are the most popular training
programmes for SMMEs and suppliers?
In our experience, the most relevant training
and development interventions are business
simulation, operations optimisation, business
financial management, personal effectiveness
and personal finance. Particular to the mining
environment, safety becomes paramount.
Please share with us some of the
challenges you have faced as a business,
and how you have developed strategies
to overcome them.
The enterprise and supplier development
space has become highly contested. This
has made it more difficult to root out the
unscrupulous ones and onerous for corporates
to find the right partner. For this reason,
we have been low-key so as to shut out the
noise and focus on our purpose and course.
Our focus is at the grassroots, putting much
sweat and intellectual capital into the
businesses we help develop as an active and
long-haul partner and that is how real impact
will be made.
Our focus is always based on looking at
answering the question that is not being
asked: “What will our partners need, and
where will our SME clients be three, five and
10 years post-development? Will they be fit for
the future?”
_____________
Building a business
is a process.
It requires time,
intense involvement
and concerted
collaboration.
___ __ ___ ____
Regoapele Capital
works with funders
such as the Masisizane
Fund to enable SMMEs
to buy equipment
SUCCESS STORIES
Sicediwe
Six years ago, Mrs Mary Mkhabela was working at Checkers selling boerewors. She
was not employed by Checkers but had negotiated for Checkers to give her working
space so she that could sell her goods and earn an income. She was identified as
the right calibre individual for business development and was given an opportunity
to render metal-breaking services, and thus became the only black woman-owned
SMME rendering this service in South Africa. She employed a staff compliment of 16
male yellow-plant operators and two office administrators. Through one initiative and
one entrepreneur, 19 jobs in that locality were created. Regoapele Capital secured
R9-million worth of funding for her to purchase the equipment she needed.
Rekgodile Logistics
Regoapele Capital assisted a group of taxi owners in forming a bulk logistics services
business by working with Bidvest Bank to secure the funding to purchase trucks from
MAN Truck. The business provides logistics services, hauling chrome from mines and
smelters. Through this intervention, the business owners were trained in understanding
cross-border transportation, hiring of staff in line with labour laws, negotiating
facilities for fuel accounts, route planning, invoicing on time, keeping books and
records, and keeping compliant with trade and statutory requirements.
ESD Fund
Regoapele Capital has created an eco-system for sustainable ESD with partners who
provide opportunities, partners who finance those opportunities, OEM partners and a
broad range of other partners on the various elements of our business development
initiatives, to deliver a holistic and comprehensive solution for ESD.
We facilitate access to finance for SMEs. We assure the suitability of the various
options and that they enable positive cashflow for SMEs and growth. This created
the desire to establish our own SME fund to bolster our cause by being providers of
finance that is responsive to SME needs.
To this end, we have worked with Glencore, ABSA and the European Union through
the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) to establish a R60-million ESD Fund.
Our fund’s structure is novel, as all stakeholders contribute a key aspect to the
ecosystem. This development has been a significant milestone for us and has
underlined the importance of having the right partners who are on board for the
right reasons.
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