NMB Chamber
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber says it seeks to promote economic development in the Metro by providing dedicated support to Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises.
The Chamber launched an SMME and Entrepreneurship Desk on Tuesday to address SMMEs' concerns about the lack of awareness of programmes offered by businesses, government, supporting agencies and financial institutions.
CEO, Denise van Huysteen, said the launch of the Desk “supports the Chamber’s drive to promote the diversification of the local economy through the development and growth of SMMEs and entrepreneurs.”
“We have partnered with some of our members and key stakeholders to pool our resources and capabilities together in order to offer services which help set up small businesses for success,” she said.
Van Huysteen said the SMME and Entrepreneurship Desk aims to provide a single point of contact for business advisory, training, mentoring, and information on support, funding programmes and business opportunities for SMMEs.”
The initiative is being done in partnership with Standard Bank and LabourNet as the main sponsors, which the Chamber said would allow SMMEs to make use of the initiatives or training programmes offered by each organisation.
“Through our partnership with the Chamber, we would like to take businesses to their next level by helping them find innovative ways to meet new challenges as they arise,” said Leigh-Anne De Witt, Standard Bank’s Eastern Cape head: client coverage, business clients.
LabourNet’s Managing Director Robert Niemand said they have long been the preferred labour legislation compliance partner to small and medium businesses in the Eastern Cape and this will be extended by “providing free training and advisory support services” as part of the partnership.
