Times Of Swaziland: STILL NO BENEFICIARY IN E45M RELIEF

STILL NO BENEFICIARY IN E45M RELIEF
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BY ASHMOND NZIMA  on 16/09/2020 00:48:00


MBABANE – Long wait. About 40 days later, micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs) still cannot access the E45 million revolving fund from government which
is meant to cushion them from the impact of COVID-19.
On August 3 (44 days ago), Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini announced a
decision by government to set up an MSME Fund to the value of E45 million to
support small and medium businesses affected by COVID-19.  The modalities and
details on the Fund, according to the pm, were to be announced by the Ministry
of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
With the modalities still not released by the time of compiling this report
yesterday, reports suggested that frustration had started to creep in among the
small businesses who wanted to access the fund to save their entities.
Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) FESBC Vice President Hezekiel
Mabuza also confirmed that they were inundated with calls from members who
wanted to access the fund. “We’re yet to get an update. The last time we
checked government was working on the regulations,” said Mabuza.
Difficult
Mabuza said the delay was derailing the small businesses in their bid to sustain
themselves during this difficult period.
He said some wanted to access the money because they needed to keep some of
their valuable employees while others wanted to take advantage of the
opportunities presented by COVID-19.
“At this stage they are not sure if they would eventually access the fund. 
They saw it as a last resort as it was difficult to access funding elsewhere. It
was going to make a big impact.
“When the businesses lose employees, government also suffers in terms of tax
revenue,” highlighted Mabuza.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo politely referred
comments to Communications Officer Thabile Mdluli.
The latter was still waiting for feedback from the technical team at the time of
compiling this report around 1:47pm.
Meanwhile, a revolving fund is simply a fund or account that remains available
to finance an organisation’s continuing operations without any fiscal year
limitation.
This is because the organisation replenishes the fund by repaying money used
from the account.