Young

In South Africa, Finfind engaged a sample of 15,000 SMMEs from its database of 400,000 businesses with almost 10% completing the survey. The Impact Report analyses data from these 1,489 SMMEs which includes representation across all sectors in all provinces.

While the outlook for the future is largely uncertain for SMMEs in South Africa, 76.7% of the business owners who were able to remain open, are optimistic about being able to survive in 2021. Only 32%, however, believe that they will be able to create new jobs – a significant alarm bell during an unprecedented unemployment crisis.

The report reveals several key challenges commonly faced by the SMME sector in South Africa during lockdown: Existing debt; lack of cash reserves; no access to relief funding; an inability to operate during the lockdown; and outdated financial information, being some of the key factors causing the closure of 42.7% of small businesses. Surprisingly, only 43% of businesses that closed had applied for COVID-19 relief funding, with 99.9% of these funding applications being rejected.

There was a 60% loss of full-time employees, and a 76.8% reduction of part-time employment in the first five months of the pandemic. Of all the SMMEs surveyed, 59.7% were unable to trade during lockdown level 5. More than 75% of all business experienced a significant decrease in revenue from the end of March to August. Only 35% of the SMMEs had cash reserves at the start of lockdown, with more than half of these being able to sustain themselves for between one and three months at most.

Prior debt was a major contributor to closures, with 66% of businesses that closed having debt before Covid-19, and half of these having outdated management accounts. These factors pose problems for businesses even in the best of times, but during the pandemic, they became critical causes of business failure.