The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) released its annual report for the 2011/2012 financial year at its Annual Stakeholder Forum hosted at the Royal Elephant Hotel and Conference Centre in Pretoria.
Seda Board chairperson Linda Mngomezulu said the organisation was proud that it had been able to respond to the needs of small enterprises countrywide during a year in which the important role played by small enterprises in developing SA’s economy was brought to the fore.
Mngomezulu was referring to the mammoth challenge put at the door-step of the SMME sector by the recently launched National Development Plan to create 90% of the jobs expected in the country by 2030!
“Judging by our performance, working with our SMME clients, as the principal small enterprise development organisation in the country, we are confident that our sector can achieve this momentous task,” says Mngomezulu.
Seda’s achievements for 2011/12
The following are some of the successes achieved by Seda during the 2011/12 financial year:
- Seda achieved an unqualified audit report
- 97% of Seda’s surveyed clients expressed satisfaction with the quality of service
- 56% of Seda’s clients reported growth in turnover
- 32% of Seda’s surveyed clients showed an increase in the number of people they employ
- Seda interacted with 79 570 new and potential SMMEs during the year under review
- Seda continued to make headlines for the right reasons with a positive to negative publicity ratio of 92:1
- 69.31% of Seda’s budget was used for direct service delivery programmes
- Deviations were negligible at just 0.89% – one of the best rates in the public service
- 295 potential SMMEs were turned into trading businesses by the Seda Technology Programme
- 1 517 jobs were created through the Seda Technology Programme
Focus on job creation
Moving forward, says Mngomezulu, Seda will double its efforts to roll out more business incubators through the Seda Technology Programme. The organisation will intensify its efforts to increase the number of collectively owned enterprises and cooperatives.
Both these initiatives have proven to be reliable job creators in other parts of the world.