South Africans with disabilities who aspire to get their small businesses off the ground often struggle with accessing funding.
The Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) has recognised this and has responded by launching its Amavulandlela Funding Scheme: a finance scheme solely for entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Sefa chief executive, Mxolisi Matshamba, said around 15 percent of all South Africans have a disability. “As entrepreneurs, persons with disabilities face challenges that others do not: their costs are often higher as they need additional staff for tasks that other business owners do for themselves.”
The agency has called on eager entrepreneurs to apply. The scheme offers credit facilities from R50 000 to R15-million at an interest rate of less than five percent, and also offers pre- and post-approval business development support, coaching and mentoring.
Applicant businesses must be at least 51 percent owned and run by a person with a disability and must be both technically feasible and financially sustainable to qualify for the Amavulandlela Funding Scheme.
Matshamba cited research which found that financial institutions regard entrepreneurs with disabilities as high-risk funding applicants; as a result, they often lack access to entrepreneurial education, mentorship, and the broad-based stigma around disability means they must innovate for market share.
“These realities, and the fact that having a disability costs money – for assistive devices, for example – collude to make it exceedingly difficult for persons with disabilities to fulfil their entrepreneurial potential and ambition,” said Matshamba.
Interested entrepreneurs can visit https://www.sefa.org.za/ and/or email business plans to [email protected].
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE