RESEARCH REPORTS
The SA SMME COVID-19 Impact Report (published November 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a lockdown that had a devastating impact on the livelihood of small businesses. Finfind, in partnership with national Government and leading big business organisations conducted a study to gauge the impact of lockdown on small businesses.
The Report Partners included:
- Department of Small Business Development
- Seda
- Services Seta
- Business Leadership South Africa
- Banking Association South Africa
- SAVCA
- SAICA Enterprise Development
- SAIPA
- IBASA
- JSE
- E Squared Investments
The comprehensive survey mapped each SMME’s situation prior to lockdown and assessed the impact of lockdown from the start of lockdown level 5 for a 5-month period to the end of lockdown level 3 (from end of March 2020 to mid-August 2020).
The SMME study included the following areas:
- Profile of the owners of these businesses
- Sector, location and other key business information
- Financials before and after the lockdown
- Online functioning before and after the lockdown
- COVID-19 relief funding applications and rejection rates
- Key challenges and future changes
There were two separate surveys – one for businesses that remained open (95 questions) and one for those who had permanently closed (reduced number of questions).
The SA SMME Access to Finance Report (published July 2018)
The purpose of this report was to map the landscape of providers and seekers of SMME funding in the country, and to identify the access to finance challenges, gaps, opportunities and potential solutions in order to promote increased funding success in this vital sector.
The SA SME Fund sponsored the independent research of the Finfind data set of funders and SMME finance seekers. The cleaned Finfind data sample was significantly larger than the GEM report, as well as any of the other South African studies and reports included in the study’s comprehensive literature review.
The report was published to benefit all stakeholders in the SMME ecosystem, including private sector lenders, DFIs, Government funding agencies, incubators, accelerators, business development service providers, Corporate Supplier Development and Enterprise Development managers, SMMEs and policy makers, amongst others.
