The productive sector: creating jobs and developing enterprises
The development of the small and medium size enterprise sector is a central vehicle for reducing both social and economic inequalities, legacies of apartheid, and is a core Government priority. It specifically aims to boost black SMEs in the framework of the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy. This far-reaching positive discrimination program in favour of historically disadvantaged people sets restrictive quantified targets for each sector with private stakeholders concretely involved in the implementation of this public service policy.
AFD Group supports the financial sector BEE charter and black SMEs through credit lines intermediated by South African banks (Industrial Development Corporation and Standard Bank) and guarantees from the AFD-ARIZ Fund (investment risk insurance mechanism).
Between 1994 and 2004 around a hundred SMEs benefited from these projects and over 2 500 jobs were created all over South Africa. Operations currently underway or under preparation should reach over 100 SMEs by 2009.
Moreover, in 2005 AFD, via PROPARCO, financed an important operation involving a 25 million euro equity transfer to BEE groups whereby FirstRand Bank shares were transferred to BEE stakeholders Kagiso, Women’s Development Bank and Mining Workers’ Union.