Social Issue

According to a World Bank report, South Africa is one of the countries with the highest economic inequality in the world. The report analysed South Africa’s post-apartheid progress, focusing on the period between 2006 and 2015, and concluded that 1% of South Africans own 70.9% of the country’s wealth, while the poorest 60% only control 7% of its assets.

A quarter of the population still lived in extreme poverty in 2015.

Our Response

The Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) is a non-profit entity, founded in 1991, whose mission is to combat extreme poverty. Although South Africa is a country with medium-high income, Apartheid has caused extreme inequality; in the province of Limpopo, where SEF has its operations, 60% of the population live below the country’s poverty line. SEF has more than 171,000 clients, of whom more than 99% are women.

SEF provides credit for self-employment, combined with the mobilisation of savings and a methodology which substantially increases the possibility of their clients’ self-employed activities being successful.

SEF follows the group-solidarity loan approach, very similar to the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which helps the poorest members of the community. To identify individuals in need of help, it uses its own tool, the Participatory Wealth Ranking; this determines who the poorest and most vulnerable members of a community are.

Expected Social Impact

With this investment of the Netri Foundation, it is estimated that SEF will be able to provide 10,100 microloans to people who mostly live in rural areas. In this way they can maintain their businesses and the poverty caused by the lack of economic opportunities is reduced.