THE National Empowerment Fund's (NEF) tool that was meant to make it more cost efficient for emerging entrepreneurs to apply for funding is down.
This is expected to come as a blow for small enterprises, as they will now have to dig deep from their pockets to pay business plan service providers, who usually charge at least R6000.
The document is usually used by enterprises when going to seek funding for expansion purposes.
Enterprise SA, which was contracted by NEF to run the Business Planner Tools, on Sunday notified customers that the service, which since 2009 assisted them in designing their own business plan, was not "available until further notice".
"We hereby inform you that the NEF's Business Planner Tools will not be available until further notice," wrote Enterprise SA chief executive Rodney Prinsloo in an e-mail.
However, finger-pointing became the order of the day when Sowetan approached both the NEF and Enterprise SA yesterday on reasons why the service was terminated. NEF spokesman Emmanuel Mohlamme said its contract with Enterprise SA had lapsed.
Mohlamme said NEF requested Prinsloo to enhance certain features of the Business Planner Tools, but that he failed to deliver.
Mohlamme said NEF would put the contract out to tender in an attempt to get a new service provider. Prinsloo, however, denied that he had failed to deliver the enhancements. He said he was forced to send out the e-mail after realising that NEF was not going to pay him over R500000 for the service he rendered from May last year to this month.
"I've been providing the service since 2008, and the last time I signed a contract with NEF was in 2011. The contract was renewed automatically," he said.
Prinsloo said the last time he got paid was in May 2004 as he had to sort out his tax clearance. "I invoiced for May to December 2014 in the latter month, and the NEF has been refusing to pay my money."
He said the developmental funding institution had requested him to do the product enhancements but gave him a negative response when he presented the quotation.
Prinsloo said he would not be taking the legal route against NEF as his business would not be able to fight the matter in court due to expensive fees.
FNB head of core lending Daniel Kaan said: "It is always unfortunate to lose any valuable resource which is designed to boost business sustainability ... [when] South Africa is on a drive to boost small-medium enterprise development ...
"In the absence of this resource, we would encourage businesses to use alternative avenues to ensure that business plans remain an important part of their strategies."
Kaan said a business plan was one of the prerequisites for a small business which wants to flourish.
"From a business sustainability perspective, it's key for any business, especially SMEs, to project its future growth through a concrete plan ..."
Blow for budding entrepreneurs
THE National Empowerment Fund's (NEF) tool that was meant to make it more cost efficient for emerging entrepreneurs to apply for funding is down.
This is expected to come as a blow for small enterprises, as they will now have to dig deep from their pockets to pay business plan service providers, who usually charge at least R6000.
The document is usually used by enterprises when going to seek funding for expansion purposes.
Enterprise SA, which was contracted by NEF to run the Business Planner Tools, on Sunday notified customers that the service, which since 2009 assisted them in designing their own business plan, was not "available until further notice".
"We hereby inform you that the NEF's Business Planner Tools will not be available until further notice," wrote Enterprise SA chief executive Rodney Prinsloo in an e-mail.
However, finger-pointing became the order of the day when Sowetan approached both the NEF and Enterprise SA yesterday on reasons why the service was terminated. NEF spokesman Emmanuel Mohlamme said its contract with Enterprise SA had lapsed.
Mohlamme said NEF requested Prinsloo to enhance certain features of the Business Planner Tools, but that he failed to deliver.
Mohlamme said NEF would put the contract out to tender in an attempt to get a new service provider. Prinsloo, however, denied that he had failed to deliver the enhancements. He said he was forced to send out the e-mail after realising that NEF was not going to pay him over R500000 for the service he rendered from May last year to this month.
"I've been providing the service since 2008, and the last time I signed a contract with NEF was in 2011. The contract was renewed automatically," he said.
Prinsloo said the last time he got paid was in May 2004 as he had to sort out his tax clearance. "I invoiced for May to December 2014 in the latter month, and the NEF has been refusing to pay my money."
He said the developmental funding institution had requested him to do the product enhancements but gave him a negative response when he presented the quotation.
Prinsloo said he would not be taking the legal route against NEF as his business would not be able to fight the matter in court due to expensive fees.
FNB head of core lending Daniel Kaan said: "It is always unfortunate to lose any valuable resource which is designed to boost business sustainability ... [when] South Africa is on a drive to boost small-medium enterprise development ...
"In the absence of this resource, we would encourage businesses to use alternative avenues to ensure that business plans remain an important part of their strategies."
Kaan said a business plan was one of the prerequisites for a small business which wants to flourish.
"From a business sustainability perspective, it's key for any business, especially SMEs, to project its future growth through a concrete plan ..."
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