Page 38 - IDC

8 CITY PRESS, 3 DECEMBER, 2017
Entrepreneurs
can sew success
in clothing sector
Female entrepreneurs need to start thinking beyond
fashion design if they want to tap into opportunities in
the clothing and textile industry, says Nicole
Moonsamy, an Industrial Development Corporation
(IDC) dealmaker in the sector.
She was speaking last week’s at the Women in
Manufacturing Conference hosted by the IDC in
Sunninghill, Johannesburg.
Moonsamy said the clothing and textile sector
had a massive advantage over other In
manufacturing businesses because it did not
require a large capital outlay or highly skilled partnership
employees to get going. with the
“I work in a sector that has the ability to
that women could tap into, and the IDC was IDC
do something most manufacturers can’t do –
I can create cheap jobs,” she said.
She said there were abundant opportunities
keen to help them identify those opportunities.
“Price points are distorted by retailers that have
brought in unfair pricing practices, and the sector
has become unsexy. No one wants to be a seamstress,
a shoemaker, a pattern maker; but that is where the
opportunities lie. We don’t have any textile
manufacturers,” she said.
There is a sizeable appetite to fund new
manufacturing ventures in this field, but what it lacks
are female entrepreneurs with enough drive to make it
a success, Moonsamy said.
“What we lack are bold female entrepreneurs;
people who are willing to follow their passion and take
the next step and be the person they always wanted to
be. The opportunities are great and the willingness
from financiers is there. It’s easy to invest in
machinery, we just need the people to invest in.”
Investing in clothing and textiles is a no-brainer
because everyone has to make a decision about what
to wear every day. However, the influx of cheap
textiles from China and other parts of the world has
weakened the sector, making it even more onerous for
new entrants into the industry. But the increasing
interest in creating clothes in South Africa, driven by
fashion-conscious consumers, has created more
WANTED: WOMEN TO DRIVE
MANUFACTURING
As part of its push
to support black
female-owned
enterprises, the IDC
wants women
to play a leading
role in key sectors
of the economy,
writes Caiphus
Kgosana Lizeka Matshekga
ater, petrochemicals, coal,
agroprocessing – there are huge
manufacturing opportunities in
these sectors.
However, very few women – and
Weven fewer black female
entrepreneurs – are active in them. The Industrial
Development Corporation (IDC) wants to change that.
Speaking at this week’s IDC Women in Manufacturing
Conference, Lizeka Matshekga, the divisional executive
for agroprocessing, infrastructure and new industries,
said the IDC had supported a majority black female-
owned fuel tank in Saldanha in the Western Cape, the
only one in the country with this pattern of ownership.
She urged those in attendance to consider entering
this sector because female participation was low.
“These are sectors that black women do not
participate in because of capital, but there are huge
opportunities,” Matshekga said.
“The private sector is under pressure because the
government has changed sectoral codes. Therein lie
opportunities.”
The IDC Women in Manufacturing Conference, held
last week in Johannesburg, brought together more than
220 female entrepreneurs, IDC executives, business
leaders and other stakeholders under one roof to
discuss opportunities that the development finance
institution is aiming to unlock for women looking to
venture into the manufacturing sector.
This is part of the institution’s broader black
industrialists programme, kick-started in 2015 with
R23 billion that was set aside to fund and create more
than 100 black industrialists within three years as the
IDC sought to play an active role in the transformation
of the economy.
Matshekga urged female entrepreneurs attending the
conference to also consider playing a supporting role in
the coal sector. With Eskom’s increasing demand for
quality coal, opportunities exist for entrepreneurs to
invest in laboratories that provide quality testing
services to coal mines.
She said the IDC had funded a similar black-owned
coal testing laboratory in Limpopo and was keen to
support another one, preferably black women-owned.
“Before Eskom takes any coal, it needs to understand
the quality of that coal. These sorts of laboratories are
ALL ZIPPED UP The clothing and textile industry does not require a large capital outlay or highly skilled employees to get it going
opportunities. to consider entering the industry at a noncore level. by large, white-owned family businesses, making it ripe
Another area where there is potential for female- “You don’t need to enter a company by going into the for entry by black female entrepreneurs. For this to
owned businesses to get involved is in the components core business. You can enter through support and happen, however, aspiring female entrepreneurs must
sector in the automotive industry. through noncore business. You can learn about that raise their hands and ask for help. Beyond that, they
Honey Mamabolo, the CEO of Thebe Unico, which business value chain; you are closer and can build must bring projects that are fundable to make it easier
manufactures performance chemicals, said she relationships. You can be supported by the very big for financiers to help.
acknowledged that sometimes barriers to entry were brother to grow your business,” she said. “When doors are closed, they will only be opened to
high in this sector, so she advised female entrepreneurs Mamabolo said the chemicals industry was dominated those who are bold enough to knock,” she said.
her,” said Matshekga.
“It has been a long journey, but the IDC walked with
“We have shown others that it can be done. Now
banks and other development finance institutions have
started to support her.”
economy, which had the potential to create thousands
Matshekga said the IDC was looking at the rural
of jobs through cultivating and processing herbs such as
the popular moringa, which is indigenous to Limpopo.
IDC board chairperson Busisiwe Mabuza said a
common thread observed among women and youth
entrepreneurs was the lack of access to funding.
She said the IDC had approved deals worth
R15 billion in the past financial year and disbursed
R11 billion of that into the economy. However, only
R3.2 billion of that money went towards businesses with
a female ownership of 25% or more.
The IDC had also spent R2.3 billion to fund youth-
owned businesses during the same period.
“This figure represents a significant increase from the
previous year; we were coming from a low base.
Remember that management is measured on where we
were before,” said Mabuza.
She said the board had requested figures indicating
PHOTOS: ELIZABETH SEJAKE Philisiwe Mthethwa how much was going into businesses with a 50% female
ownership. She noted that the first female entrepreneur
that the IDC had funded in its history, spanning more
than 70 years, was the maker of Ouma Rusks. She was
given a R3 000 loan in 1940 to create what is now an
Funding and support are key iconic brand, known around the world.
Mabuza said hard work still lay ahead for
development finance institutions like theirs if the
economy was to be transformed enough to bring black
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. Sometimes networks and people who are going to open the and female entrepreneurs into the mainstream.
there is no structure to refer to, no manager to market for you. You need these, together with a great “Our staff know that no matter how hard they work,
consult. It can also be difficult to find someone who product and a customer who believes that your the economy needs us to work even harder as we
can vouch for your product. product is better than anyone else’s out there.” endeavour to deliver on our developmental mandate.
Even more challenging: Rachelson said her institution We need to ensure that the impact of our work
How do you make an paired entrepreneurs with a includes discernible and distinguishable transformation
entrepreneur “funding ready”? host of mentors to help them and empowerment targets,” she said.
All of these challenges came navigate the course and Mabuza urged female entrepreneurs at the conference
to the fore and were put to understand what they needed to help nudge the institution in the right direction if they
the experts attending the IDC to do to make their venture a felt it was not doing enough to empower them.
Women in Manufacturing success. “Stay on our case to assist us in assisting you. Do not
conference. She urged entrepreneurs to lose heart. We need to do this together to regain the
Donna Rachelson, CEO of network with enough people position we have lost in terms of our competitiveness
the Women Development within their sector, as well as rating as a country.”
Bank Seed Fund, said female outside of it, to unlock IDC board member Philisiwe Mthethwa, who is also
entrepreneurs needed business opportunities. the CEO of the National Empowerment Fund (NEF),
effective business Fazielah Allie, the managing said while she acknowledged that the conference
development support in order director of K9 Pet Foods – focused on women in manufacturing, they should also
to succeed. which was funded by the IDC be made aware of opportunities in other sectors.
“We need access to markets and now sells its products to Mthethwa said women should look into opportunities
and finance,” she said, adding Donna Rachelson, CEO of the Women some of the country’s biggest in infrastructure development to tap into government’s
that female entrepreneurs also Development Bank Seed Fund, was retailers – said the journey trillion-rand investment in new roads, dams, bridges,
required coaches, mentors one of the speakers at the IDC towards making a success of railway lines, electricity connections and other projects.
and sponsors who would walk Women in Manufacturing conference the company would have She also urged female entrepreneurs to consider
the journey with them and been much harder without a entering the retail sector, which accounts for 7% of
hone them into astute businesspeople. solid support base. South Africa’s GDP.
Rachelson pointed out that female entrepreneurs “There were moments when we felt that we were Mthethwa said her experience at the NEF had taught
often thought they needed only funding to succeed moving forward – and then we needed to take two her that female entrepreneurs were highly driven and
when, in fact, they needed much more than money. steps back. Those are the moments in which you had a propensity to succeed against the odds.
“Often as businesses, we feel we need funding. You need support to continue on your journey and “We have found that female entrepreneurs are more
don’t need funding; you need good marketing, good achieve what you need to do,” she said. likely to succeed in business because they are focused,
driven and true to their dreams.”
Investing in women entrepreneurs made sense for
funders, she said, as women were prudent with money
very monopolistic. We want to change that,” she said. Northern Cape, owned by businesswoman Daphne and were known to service their debt in record time.
The IDC has also funded majority black-owned business Mashile-Nkosi. “They actually service their loans with far greater
ventures in the agroprocessing sector. It was particularly Matshekga said the IDC had partnered with Mashile- diligence. They will not take the money we give them
encouraged by one that was immediately offered a market Nkosi for almost two decades, starting with an initial and buy huge cars and waste money. They know that
for its products by retail giant Woolworths. R10 million investment which, if everything falls into those funds are meant for the advancement of their
An investment in a female-led business which the IDC place, will turn her mining venture into one of the five businesses. They have been known to service their
is most proud of is a manganese mine in Sishen in the largest manganese producers in the world. loans in record time,” she added.