Black Industrialist Scheme – Grant Opportunities

Introduction

The Department of Trade Industry and Competition (“DTIC”) administrators the Black Industrialist Scheme (“BIS”) which seeks to increase the level of participation of black South Africans in ownership and control of productive enterprises in key sectors and value-chains.

Larger corporates can leverage BIS grant funding as part of their enterprise and supplier development programmes to support black suppliers in their supply chains. The BIS support black suppliers either to set up new production facilities, expand or upgrade their current facilities to invest in new capacity, expand existing operations or to improve quality of their products to meet industry standards.

The BIS funding can be accessed by existing black owned businesses and/or black suppliers into large corporates seeking to transform their supply chain.

What is the Black Industrialist Scheme?

The BIS is administered by the DTIC and provides cost-sharing grant funding geared to support black industrialists to expand or establish new manufacturing facilities.

Performance of the BIS since inception

In the last seven years the DTIC has approved R4.2 billion grant funding to support black businesses.

Black Industrialist Scheme Support

The BIS grant is capped at R50 million and offers between a 30% and 50% grant for qualifying capital investment costs, feasibility studies, post-investment support and business development services. The quantum of the grant depends on the level of black ownership and management control, the economic benefit of the project and the project value.

Evaluation criteria

Projects are evaluated using pre-defined economic benefit criterion. Qualifying projects are assessed on the following areas:

• Ability to creating employment opportunities,
• Demonstrating access to market or increase market share,
• Ability to improve the quality of products,
• Localization of production activities,
• Green Technology and Resource Efficiency Improvements,
• Whether the project is located in rural areas or areas with unemployment higher than 25%,
• Personal risk from the black industrialist, and
• B-BBEE contributor status.

Things to consider prior to submitting an application

• The black industrialist must have more than fifty percent (>50%) shareholding and management control.
• The project must be investing a minimum of R30m in capital assets.
• The black industrialist must be directly involved in the day-to-day running of the operation and must have requisite expertise in the sector.

Contact Catalyst Solutions if you are a black industrialist with expansion plans, establishing a green-field manufacturing facility or a large corporate considering supply chain transformation options.

josh@catalystsolutions.co.za – 082 842 7310
moeketsi@catalystsolutions.co.za – 082 080 9416
christo@catalystsolutions.co.za – 084 513 8177