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Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni during her address in Stellenbosch, Boland, at a recent Pitch for Funding event aimed at facilitating better access to financial resources for small businesses.
Small to medium enterprise issues will be discussed at this weeks’ Global SME Ministerial Meetings, which will form part of the G20 Leaders Meeting in November. Minister of Small Business Development, Stella Ndabeni, says these engagements will help find ways to create a healthy business environment for these businesses.
The Startup20 Engagement Group, a key body under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, is pushing for greater recognition and support for start-ups and micro, small, and medium enterprises.
One of the many issues that will be discussed in these meetings includes access to funding for small businesses.
Ndabeni says this is an issue that is critical to SMEs development.
“We are definitely looking at the access to finance and tapping into how we encourage regional investment, whether it’s on finance or trade. So, we are looking at all those aspects, on how to do inter regional trade in terms of investment and providing finances in certain areas, but not many of them are interested in financing small businesses. So, this is what we are looking for to say what solutions can we come up with that will enable investment at a regional level,” says Ndabeni.
Minister for Small Business Development, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni, delivered a powerful keynote address at the SU20 Mid-term Engagement today.#startup20 #su20 #g20 #midtermengagement #entrepreneurship #startup #msme #inclusion #sustainability #africarising #innovationeconomy… pic.twitter.com/s4XxAqYCn9
— Department of Small Business Development (@DSBD_SA) July 21, 2025
The International Trade Centre Executive Director, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, says these meetings were formed in an effort to find ways to help solve challenges faced by this sector.
“We were the creators of this particular forum and it’s the first ever fully global ministerial for SMEs and we thought it was important because since COVID one of the key challenges has been getting global coverage.”
Chairperson for South Africa’s G20 Presidency’s Startup20 Engagement Group, Vuyani Jarana, has emphasised how this group is critical for the sector.
“This is the first interim meeting preparing for the final summit in November. Everybody who’s here is going to be discussing first card policy proposals that must be more inclusive in nature. That’s why you’ve got more people in the hall to actually work on those themes and synthesize them when they finish a draft. Communique will be prepared which will synthesize over the next couple of months and finally approve it, so that it is ready to be presented to the G20 leaders when they sit in November,” says Jarana.
VIDEO | The SU20 Mid-term Engagement
