State of SMME in SA report reveals striking gender imbalance with only 37% female-owned small businesses
Women entrepreneurs often face systemic barriers in scaling their businesses, which includes limited access to growth capital, mentorship opportunities, and professional networks.
Young women running a small business, Pexels
Stephen Grootes speaks to Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive at the Shoprite Group about the findings of a report on the "State of the SMME" in South Africa, highlighting key challenges and opportunities for small businesses.
Listen to the interview in the audio player below.
The State of SMME in South Africa report reveals a striking gender imbalance, with 51.2% of SMMEs owned by males and only 37.7% small business are female-owned.
This is just one of the key findings of a study which was led by Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx, in conjunction with the Shoprite Group, with the aim to offer an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing SMMEs in our country.
Surveying around 800 entrepreneurs, the analysis gives an in-depth look at small businesses and how they operate in South Africa, unpacking the challenges many of them face, including persistent gender disparities, limited infrastructure and market access and the potential evolution of businesses through marketing and social media exposure.
The report also revealed that larger-sized SMME's are predominantly owned by males, with women owning only 12.6% of enterprises employing 51-200 individuals.
Other statistics revealed that SMME ownership is dominated by individuals aged 45-54, who account for 36.7% of owners, followed by those aged 35-44 (26.7%) and 5564 (23%). Business owners under 34 constitute a smaller portion (6.8%), suggesting that younger entrepreneurs face greater barriers to entry.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive at the Shoprite Group says lack of support for female business is quite evident.
"Some of the key takeout's from there is, we need to specifically focus around women, and the critical need for targeted support for female entrepreneurs in order to improve access and access to market for them and obviously put in specific resources to assist them with that."
- Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive - Shoprite Group
"Women actually play quite a pivotal role in smaller businesses. Those are smaller businesses, small and micro that employ around 5 people. They own around 51% of those businesses."
- Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive - Shoprite Group
"Limited access to funding, limited access to networks, even for mentorship opportunities. But also bespoke solutions that really speak to issues that could help women businesses expand to certain levels."
- Maude Modise, enterprise and government relations executive - Shoprite Group
Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.