ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Transformation goals
One of the reasons many entrepreneurs in South Africa are struggling is that they face challenges in obtaining the necessary support, said Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams in a speech in eThekwini last year. They need, she said,“ access to funding, business development support, information, market access and procurement opportunities”.
bpSA is aware of these challenges, and we address them in our strategy to grow our forecourts. We have a multi-pronged strategy to grow the number of Blackowned partners that support our business, including ensuring that the racial mix of our service station owners correlates more closely to South Africa’ s demographics. bpSA’ s goal of transforming the ownership of its dealer-owned forecourts, which at this point are 62 % Black-owned, has been made possible by a cooperation agreement between bpSA and the National Empowerment Fund. Recently, it entered into another partnership, with the Small Enterprise Development & Finance Agency( SEDFA). These intentional transformation initiatives, implemented for over 12 years, are designed to provide affordable finance to empower Black-owned businesses to acquire and operate service stations and related forecourt businesses. The bpSA portion of the funding does not burden the beneficiary with interest as it is a zero-based loan. The partnership also provides the beneficiary with pre- and post-investment support that helps to ensure the success of the business.
Starting from the ground up Our service champions, many of whom have aspirations to further their careers in the fuel industry, are the backbone of the bpSA forecourts. Recognising this, bpSA recently launched the Impumelelo Bursary Programme to help them pursue further education. The bursary was opened up to applicants who had already registered in tertiary institutions for any course of study, which underscores their determination to better themselves.
This year bpSA awarded 32 bursaries to our service champions, covering a wide range of fields of study. Recipients, aged up to 41 years, are enrolled at universities and TVET colleges across South Africa. In addition, bpSA supports our own employees to further their studies.
The bpSA portion of the funding does not burden the beneficiary with interest as it is a zero-based loan.
By contributing towards career advancement for our staff, bpSA is making education more accessible and achievable, and simultaneously investing in the future of South Africa.
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