Small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) are key players in the economy and require support to overcome challenges, including a lack of access to market opportunities and finance, and enable them to play a pivotal role in boosting economic growth.

This was highlighted by City of Tshwane executive mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya, delivering the keynote address at the 2025 SMME Symposium on May 6, hosted by the Tshwane Economic Development Agency, the South African Electrotechnical Export Council and The Innovation Hub.

Moya stressed the importance of bolstering transformation, with not enough progress made since democracy, evidenced in persistent high inequality in income, employment and labour, and poverty and living standards. She emphasised that SMMEs must be brought along and play a key role in transformation.

She also underlined the need for more financial service providers in the city to participate in the transformation agenda.

Moya called for collaboration to tackle challenges that SMMEs faced in access to finance.

She also highlighted government’s support for SMMEs, emphasising that inequality would not be solved by big business alone, especially given that SMMEs still supported a considerable contingent of the population, directly or indirectly.

Moya averred that the city wanted to provide support and create laws that enabled SMMEs to thrive.

In terms of the latter, she highlighted the informal trading and township economy bylaw, which is out for public consultation.

Moya said the city was supporting 300 youth-owned enterprises, but noted that this was insufficient in proportion to the city’s youthful demographic.

Other initiatives also included assisting SMMEs with formal registration, and dispelling misconceptions about what this meant for businesses. Moya pointed out that it was important for the city to be aware of business, so that they could provide the requisite support.

The city was also exploring the option of waiving fees for certain certifications for SMMEs, with Moya noting this was a particular financial stumbling block.

Moya pointed out that the city already had seven business support centres, and was adding another two, with the aim being the provision of all services SMMEs required.

She also called for government to do more with its convening power to facilitate market access for SMMEs.

She further called on SMMEs to weigh in on the city’s economic revitalisation plan, to discern if it assisted in resolving the challenges they faced, as well as how they saw their role in implementing it. She said that there should be a roundtable with SMMEs to explore this.

The city’s ‘Revitalisation Strategy 2025-2029’ was approved at the beginning of April, and has identified priority sectors and high-impact projects to unlock growth. The aim is to attract R26-billion in new investment, increase Tshwane’s growth rate by more than 3%, and create 80 000 new jobs by 2029.

Moya informed that the city was keenly focused on engendering economic growth, especially following stagnation in the past few years and businesses closing owing to Covid-19.

In this vein, one of the city’s key priorities was economic revitalisation and attracting investment, with government cognisant that it required private-sector involvement to achieve its goal, Moya explained.

The new administration has been seeking to stabilise the city’s finance since it started in October, and at March end had presented a fully funded budget to council, Moya highlighted, adding that this was something that city had not achieved in four years.

She also advised SMMEs to consider how they could tap into the R100-billion Transformation Fund that was launched by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition last week.

SMMEs in the automotive, digital technology, electronics and energy sectors also displayed their offerings to attendees and the executive mayor.