B-BBEE Commission Annual Conference to focus on enterprise development to Promote Market Access
The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Commission will seek to put Enterprise and Supplier Development on the agenda of Corporate South Africa at its annual conference to promote the support for black entrepreneurs. The Annual Conference will take place on Friday, 13 March 2020 at the Olive Convention Centre in North Beach, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The conference is open to all citizens, corporate South Africa and entrepreneurs.
The conference will focus on Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD), with the theme “Building sustainable partnerships in the economy through ESD”, and is open to all citizens, corporate South Africa and entrepreneurs.
According to the Codes, corporates have the annual target of 3% of Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) to spend on black entrepreneurs as a contribution to ESD. The thrust of the conference will thus be on providing guidance to our stakeholders on the requirements and proper implementation of ESD in line with code series 400 of the Codes of Good Practice.
The National Status and Trends on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Report for 2018 issued by the B-BBEE Commission showed that measured entities were on average achieving more than 50% of the targets of ESD, an improvement from the 2017 report. The findings of the report undoubtedly show us that industry is making significant strides in developing Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). This positive move must be encouraged so that it can result in sustainable black businesses that can create more job opportunities.
The aim is to promote a conducive environment for the creation of sustainable partnerships between Corporate South Africa and black entrepreneurs to enable access and transformation of the value chains. A number of entrepreneurs have benefited thus far, but more awareness is needed to promote access to finance and markets, competitiveness, and localisation, among other things critical to entrepreneurs.
Lessons on how to create and sustain these initiatives will be shared during the conference, including a showcase of some of the successful ESD programmes in KwaZulu-Natal. Others should learn from those that have done it well so that more entrepreneurs can benefit from ESD.
The annual conference was preceded by the provincial conferences, which were part of a major programme to educate and create awareness of the mission of the B-BBEE Commission and the various related government entities that are tailor-made to assist businesses. The emphasis was on SMMEs and previously disadvantaged individuals, to assist them in participating meaningfully in the South African economy.
B-BBEE must help achieve equality, create jobs and reduce poverty and most importantly it must remove obstacles to transformation, including lack of funding and market access for new entrants and black businesses.
For more information, visit www.bbbeecommission.co.za.
For media enquiries contact:
Sidwell Medupe - Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
