COMBAT COVID-19: Financial Relief For SMEs

Are you accessing all available financial relief for SMEs?

In our bid to keep you informed, we wanted to let you know that there may be financial relief funds that you are not aware of. In addition to the Debt Relief Fund and South Africa Future Trust that we spoke about last week, there are other relief measures that we wanted to bring to your attention.

In an article published by BusinessTech yesterday, here are the below initiatives for you to peruse:

1. The Business Growth and Resilience Facility will provide working capital, stock, bridging finance, order finance and equipment finance to small businesses which supply in-demand medical supplies like hand sanitiser, with funding dependent on the business’s requirements;
2. The SMME Relief Finance Facility will provide soft-loan funding for existing businesses which are distressed due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The aid will be available for six months from 1 April 2020, although businesses may apply for a longer period of assistance if additional assistance is required;
3. The SEFA-Debt Restructuring Facility is geared towards SMMEs which are already funded by the Small Enterprise Funding Agency (SEFA) and are negatively affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. SEFA will grant a payment holiday for up to six months;
4. The Industrial Development Corporation has put a package of more than R3 billion together for industrial funding to address the situation of vulnerable firms and to fast-track financing for companies critical to efforts to fight Covid-19 and its economic impact;
5. R200 million in aid has been made available by the Department of Tourism to assist SMMEs in the tourism and hospitality sector who are under particular stress due to the travel restrictions.

As always, we’re #InYourCorner to help you fight the good fight facing all entrepreneurs in South Africa. Share how your business has been affected by the National Lockdown via our #SupportSmallBusiness Whatsapp line > 071 304 0253 and manage your business funding requirements online on our Client Zone Portal.