Social Issue

South Africa continues to have one of the highest levels of inequality in the world. Furthermore, the country has a very high unemployment rate, especially in rural areas. Many people create small businesses to survive, but there are few financing opportunities for them.

Our Response

We have supported the Small Enterprise Foundation since 2012 with guarantees and loans to further its mission to combat extreme poverty in South Africa.

Small Enterprise Foundation is a non-profit entity, founded in 1991, and although South Africa is a country with medium-high income, Apartheid has caused extreme inequality; in the province of Limpopo, where Small Enterprise Foundation has most its operations, 60% of the population live below the country’s poverty line.

Small Enterprise Foundation 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.

Small Enterprise Foundation 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. 99% of Small Enterprise Foundation’s clients are women.

Expected Social Impact

With this investment of the Netri Foundation, it is estimated that the Small Enterprise Foundation will be able to provide 13,000 microloans, with the objective of providing business opportunities to women living in rural areas.