It looks like all the research, articles, failing businesses, lack and of start-up capital and lack of confidence in small business circles have finally convinced the SA government that perhaps it’s not realistic to burden start-ups with miles of empowerment red tape. Entrepreneurs and most countries still find the start-up phase of a new venture extremely challenging, so much so that in a country like the UK where so much is being done to support small business in terms of resources, support, reduction in regulations and many other areas, there is still a staggering 60% of new firms which don’t make it past year 2 and 80% don’t make it past year 8.

The SA government recently announced their decision to substantially increase the thresholds for exempted microenterprises from R300000 to R5m, and for qualifying small enterprises to between R5m and R35m.

It must be a huge weight of the shoulders of small firms who take on huge risks to build new firms which in turn create jobs and contribute to the countries GDP, to now be free from the burden of empowerment compliance.

Lets see if our banks will now open their eyes and more importantly their pockets to support the South Africa’s entrepreneurs.