Subscribe & Follow

Advertise your job vacancies

Jobs

Gallery Manager Cape Town
Visitor Experience Consultant Cape Town
Digital Marketing and Content Designer Johannesburg
Sales Executive - Junior to Intermediate Johannesburg
Group Travel Account Manager South Africa

Empowerment fund to aid tourism sector

31 Mar 2014

A new empowerment fund to be launched in May will allow large companies in the tourism sector to boost their empowerment scores by investing in small businesses.

Salifou Siddo. Image: TEP

The fund is to be unveiled by the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP), a public-private partnership and non-governmental organisation focused on enterprise development in the tourism sector. TEP is looking to raise an average of between R10m and R30m a year through the new funding tool.

The new fund will be based on the new black economic empowerment (BEE) codes which will be effective from next year.

This is seen as a way of providing much-needed funding for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector, while also allowing large companies to earn bonus points in the new enterprise and supplier development element of the BEE scorecard.

TEP provides SMEs in the tourism sector with training, mentorship, market access and funding. The latter comes in the form of small grants ranging from R5,000 to R50,000.

Larger companies that invest in enterprise supplier development solutions (ESDS), will receive upfront certification when they invest their enterprise and supplier development in ESDS.

"We want to use this as an opportunity to develop a database of SMEs that the tourism sector's large companies can procure from in terms of supplier development and SMEs that they can invest enterprise development into," said TEP's chief executive Salifou Siddo.

The Department of Tourism said TEP was originally funded by business through the Business Trust. When the trust folded and TEP experienced funding difficulties, the government stepped in to support the organisation on a 50/50 basis, although the government provides 75% funding.

"However this interim arrangement will be terminated at the end of the next financial year (April)", said the department's spokesman, Trevor Bloem.

There are 4,000 SMEs on TEP's database in sectors including accommodation, tour guides, tour operators and crafts. "Despite 75% of the funding coming from the state, the organisation struggles to meet the financial demand from SMEs," Siddo said.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge

Source: I-Net Bridge

For more than two decades, I-Net Bridge has been one of South Africa’s preferred electronic providers of innovative solutions, data of the highest calibre, reliable platforms and excellent supporting systems. Our products include workstations, web applications and data feeds packaged with in-depth news and powerful analytical tools empowering clients to make meaningful decisions.

We pride ourselves on our wide variety of in-house skills, encompassing multiple platforms and applications. These skills enable us to not only function as a first class facility, but also design, implement and support all our client needs at a level that confirms I-Net Bridge a leader in its field.

Go to: http://www.inet.co.za