Isivande Women's Fund
Background
the dti hosted several consultative workshops on access to finance for women entrepreneurs.
All of these confirmed the need for an exclusive fund for women to be established.
A study was commissioned by the dti GWE Unit, the IFC and FinMark on Women's Access to finance in SA
in 2006. This confirmed that limited access to finance for women inhibit the establishment, the growth, the
sustainability as well as the profitability of women's enterprises. The study further pointed to gender
bias within existing financial institutions.
Many surveys, among them, GCIS, Finscope and Labour Force widely acknowledge that:
Black women's usage of financial services is dominated by informal savings, funeral and burial schemes with little or
very expensive credit reaching their enterprises.
Women, youth and people with disability, put together, dominate the second economy
and must be the target for mainstreaming.
Initiatives such as access to finance, procurement opportunities and jobs should include "set asides"
to avoid marginalizing these groups it left open.
Responding to the above, the dti national draft Strategic Framework on Gender Women's Economic
Empowerment proposed the establishment of the Isivande Women's Fund (IWF) as one major
intervention in addressing the above.
IWF is one attempt to improve women's access to formal finance in the absence of personal
savings and gender bias existing institutions.
Vision
To improve the lives of Women in business and Women led households in South Africa
and the eradication of poverty.
Mission
To become a leading catalyst for improving and expanding access to finance to women
entrepreneurs directly by lending and investing in women enterprises with limited access
and generating income which will improve their living standards.
Main objective
IWF aims to accelerate women's economic empowerment by providing more affordable usable and
responsive finance than is presently the case.
Other objectives
- To bring in a new category of entrepreneurs presently
constrained by limited access.
- To broaden access through new funding, flexible instruments and leverage with
selected partners thus providing women the tools with which to share
in the growing SA economy.
- To introduce flexibility in its service delivery and accommodate the special circumstances of
women owned and run enterprises both as regards funding range and type of facility offered.
- To facilitate linkages with selected partner financial institutions operating in predominantly
black women-for owned Micro and SME markets, including DFIs and financial services organizations
as a value proposition for expanding access and convenience.
- To measure its success by number of women entrepreneurs it supports to improve
households income and wealth over time.
Target Customer
The main client is a formally registered, 60% women owned and/or managed enterprise
that have been in existence for two or more years.
The WEF will specifically target:
- Black women at the bottom of the economic ladder, as these are the focus of
this fund.
- High potential survivalists, micro enterprises and co-operatives on a case by case basis.
- Professionals (skilled women with feasible business ideas).
- Entrepreneurs (women currently running their own enterprises).
The WEF will pursue deals involving:
- Start-up funding;
- Business expansions;
- Business rehabilitations and turnarounds;
- Franchises; and
- Bridging finance.
Service Offerings:
The fund will specialize in debt financing;
Loans will range from R30 000 to R2 million per transaction.
Exceptions will be considered by the Investment Committee and subject to
approval by the Executive Management.
The loan repayment period will be a maximum of five years.
Eligibility conditions for loans will include the following:
- The SME or Co-operative must be 60% women-owned/controlled.
- The business must have at least a 2 year track record of business activity and a sustainable business plan.
- The staff profile must be at least 60% Women and 75% Black (including people living with disability).
- The business must be in a rural or peri-urban area.
- IWF will limit loans to 60% in peri-urban and 40% in rural areas in year one
(to be reviewed thereafter) and 30% towards start-ups.
- IWF will identify and package business support services to its funding at pre and
post intervention stages to enhance the chances of success of the business.
- The Old Mutual Masisizane Fund will co-fund each loan on a rand-for-rand basis and
also provide free financial education to IWF's clients.
Contact Details
Information and application forms can be accessed by contacting the dti
customer contact centre on 0861 843 384.
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