NORTHERN CAPE SMME TRUST SEEKS TO EXPAND

The Northern Cape SMME Trust will be pulling out all stops in establishing itself in all major towns of the province. The Trust is a non-profit organisation that gives all-round support to small businesses such as incubation, business plan development, new venture creation, sourcing funding, company registration and compliance. CEO of the Trust Gospel Mathe says the board of the trust has endorsed their expansion plan and that the focus is on soliciting funds from private sector.

“Part of our strategic objective is to expand throughout the province. We are looking into setting up satellite offices throughout the province, in every region. We are looking at Kuruman, we looking at De Aar, we also looking at Springbok and Upington. We also want to set up an office at Hartswater in Phokwane Municipality because most of the clients we service here come from Phokwane, they drive all the way from Hartswater and Pampierstad to Kimberley. There are also those that come from as far as Kuruman.”

He says his office will also pursue the national Department of Public Works for enterprise development services office space.

Mathe enthuses over the interest displayed by the youth and women that consult the Trust. “If you look at our incubation programme, most of them are youth and women. We like the energy that they display but we think more can be done. There are also chambers out there, the Youth Chamber that is also doing everything possible to instill the entrepreneurship spirit.”

He also indicates that it would be heartening for the Trust to be entrusted again with the management of the Department of Economic Development’s Provincial Economic Growth Development Fund for channeling of funding towards deserving start-ups.

The Trust is mainly funded by the Northern Cape’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and also receives donations from the private sector.

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