20 Jan 2013

The Local Enterprise Authority's (LEA) overall organisational performance for the year ending March 31, 2012 fell short by five per cent to stand at 69.4 per cent against a target performance of 75 per cent.

Presenting the financial results for the year 2011/2012, LEA chief executive officer, Dr Tebogo Matome attributed the shortfall to a number of factors such as inadequate financial resources to perform the organisation’s mandate as per Small Business Act of 2003 as well as high levels of staff turnover.

Dr Matome said LEA experienced a slowdown in the business results of their clients and “factors outside our control, for example, identified impediments or bottlenecks to the development of the four sub-sectors.”

In terms of enrolment and assessment of their clients, Dr Matome said of the 211 clients that were screened, 191 passed while only 20 failed.

That, he said, represented a pass rate of 90.5 per cent compared to 74 per cent in the previous year, hence an indication that they were now attracting clients with appropriate entrepreneurial traits.

Furthermore, he said they had helped a total of 96 clients to create and submit new business plans, of which 38 were approved, 24 rejected and 34 still under consideration.

The 96 business plans, he said, had a total investment value amounting to more than P67 million.

He added that the value for the approved business plans was more than P18 million, more than P23 million for the rejected business plans and over P25 million for those still under consideration.

In terms of growth experienced by LEA assisted SMMEs, Dr Matome said a total of 614 sustainable jobs were created against a target of 667, an increased turnover of P323 million was recorded against a target of P400 million and a total of 108 new SMMEs were registered against a target of 156.

He said, as an alternative form of employment to targeted members of the public, a total of 509 prospective entrepreneurs attended LEA’s entrepreneurship awareness initiative aimed at increasing entrepreneurship awareness.

The organisation trained a total of 734 clients through various capacity building interventions and also conducted 193 other specialised trainings for clients.

 ENDS