Cape Town
- The Black Business Council (BBC) on Thursday dismissed the Department of Trade
and Industry (dti), and First National Bank (FNB) partnership aimed to improve
access to funding for black industrialists (BI), saying is nothing more than a
public relations exercise.
This follows a pledge that was signed on Tuesday at the unveiling
of the Black Industrialist Scheme by the DTI Minister, Rob Davies together with
FNB CEO for Public Sector Banking, Kgosi Ledimo.
The funding for BI is aimed to roll out 100 programmes by
March 2018.The partnership would facilitate information-sharing
regarding the department’s incentive programmes.
BBC secretary-general George Sebulela said “the way the
agreement has been entered into, it sounds like an agreement to utilise FNB for
access to information rather than finance".
Read also: Black industrialists get a finance pledge
The BBC said that it would have preferred to see an agreement
about funding at a discounted rate rather than an agreement about information
sharing.
"The statement does not detail access to finance. What
finance options are black industrialists being offered that makes FNB
different?"
Sebulela said the black industrialists programme was one of
the major policy instruments that could be used to achieve radical economic
transformation, for which the BBC has long made a call.
This comes as the manufacturing sector has been under
pressure, with the Manufacturing
Circle calling for a strategy to reverse the
decline of the industry and for the creation of 1-million new jobs. In May,
manufacturing production fell 0.8%, compared with May 2016.
The Absa purchasing managers index (PMI) fell below the
neutral 50-mark in June to 46.7 index points, indicating a contraction in the
sector.
Manufacturing Circle executive director Philippa Rodseth
said the numbers and the PMI both indicated that the sector was contracting,
but she remained upbeat that manufacturing was the key in turning around the
economy.
Manufacturing Circle chairman André de Ruyter said the
Treasury and the Manufacturing
Circle had a shared "priority to grow
manufacturing and to re-industrialise the economy, as an important step in
reversing recent ratings downgrades and boosting investment, economic growth
and employment".
So far, the black industrialists programme has approved 52
projects with an estimated value of R4.5bn and created 9 000 jobs. Versions of
the programme are being mirrored in other industries, based on the success in
the manufacturing sector.
The Black Industrialist Scheme was an important step in
reindustrialisation, said Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies. The scheme
was set up as an incentive programme to help black entrepreneur’s access
finance and markets, to beef up skills development and standards, and quality
and productivity improvement.
“Getting into the value-added space [of manufacturing] is
imperative. The challenge is to promote industrialisation generally but also
greater inclusivity in the manufacturing sector.
“It was important for the department to supply skills
development and not just ownership deals,” Davies said.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE