Loan funding company opens the way for rural enterprises
The Eastern Cape government is continually urging the rural community to rescue the province by creating employment opportunities.
Yet, outside the fences of the small farms and spaza-type shops, little is being done to bolster the upstream and downstream activities for the primary producers.
These add-on activities include building products, marketing, sales and beneficiation, tasks that can be done at source.
Inyosi Empowerment’s (IE) CEO Evan Jones said that the company had been in the loan funding sector for a decade, focusing on black-owned small, medium and micro-sized businesses.
“It has facilitated over 300 black-owned businesses with access to capital, markets and skills, with loans to the tune of nearly R900m,” Jones said.
“The access to funding has made an enormous difference to the entrepreneurs in our customer base.
“Removing the constant threat posed by not being able to service their clients due to cash constraints is a win-win for them and us.”
Jones said that among their many success stories was Bhongoloncedo General Trading (BGT), a black-female owned business providing the remote communities in the Eastern Cape with easier access to building materials.
BGT founder Bhongolethu Webu said they had seized the opportunity to set up their own company.
“In 2018 my husband Nkosomzi and I identified a gap in the market to supply individuals and businesses in the various villages surrounding East London with bricks and other building materials,” she said.
The company trades out of Mpongo Village, a rural settlement 40km from East London. It supplies everything businesses need to assist people who are upgrading their homes or businesses.
The only hurdles to BGT’S stellar growth was access to capital to enable them to keep the cashflow going.
That was when IE came into the picture by providing loan funding. This enabled BGT to extend its services, carry a bigger range and to extend credit to customers who were in good standing.
“It was a pivotal turning point for our company,” Webu said.
She added that besides access to finance, they had benefited from assistance in overcoming a paucity of knowledge in the ever-changing economic situation, as well as financial skills development.
Evans said that IE had, in some instances, matched loans with grant funding, which, unlike loans, does not need to be repaid. IE also has a close relationship with www.ihive.co.za, which gives IE’S beneficiaries access to more than 500 corporate investors.
Webu said the loan had enabled them to buy vehicles and to set up a delivery system, plus employing 29 people.
“Members of the Mpongo and surrounding communities would travel over 40km, often by way of public transport, to source building materials in East London,” she said.
“We now enable community members, contractors and developers to source building materials closer to home.”
To celebrate IE’S success it has launched an exclusive business loan funding competition where one black-owned business could win an interest free loan of up to R5m.
For more information Inyosi Empowerment