This paper focuses on the lack of an efficient private sector debt market for the funding of public sector projects. A brief synopsis is presented on the current listing activity on the Bond Exchange South Africa (BESA), which highlights the lack of private sector participation in public sector projects. Research is conducted on an international and a local basis with the use of a self-administered questionnaire to establish the extent of private sector funding in public projects. The results of this research reveal that whilst many jurisdictions recognise the role of the private sector in funding public sector projects, many have yet to see the benefits that flow from the private-public partnership initiatives that have been implemented in the developing countries such as China, Taiwan and South Korea. In this regard, however, South Africa has already gone a long way in the process of developing a public-private partnership program with the implementation of regulations and a separate unit being established at National Treasury to facilitate such programs. Nevertheless, the municipal sector of the country still needs to promulgate critical legislation to allow for greater involvement by the private sector in financing the infrastructure needs of local government. To provide detail to the study, an interview was conducted with the listing director of BESA, which highlighted important concerns of investors and also presented solutions to address those concerns relating to the lack of development of the private sector funding of public projects. The main concern of investors relate to the lack of proper governance structures in municipal and other government organs. The proposed solution to address the concerns of investors is to adopt innovative financing techniques to attract private investors to such projects, such as the use of securitisation schemes. Finally the study also highlights gaps in extant knowledge relating to the use of private sector funding in South African public sector projects. The study finds that more research needs to be conducted into the financial engineering techniques that have been successfully employed in countries that have more experience in developing a private sector debt market for the funding of public sector projects. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

M.Ed. / Technikons are independent tertiary institutions training potential technologists for industry. In order to fulfil this mission additional resources are required and foundations and/or trusts have been established to assist in the raising of these resources. Effective management is therefore essential. To obtain optimum results fundraisers must possess above average abilities in managerial skills and be focused to reach their goals and objectives based on business orientated principles. Good business principles involve sound strategic, marketing and financial planning and focusing on research. The manager must be well versed, practically and theoretically, in the planning, implementing, organising, controlling and evaluating of fundraising projects. In this respect also staff development plays a major role in that leadership development, commitment and motivation contribute to the success of the fundraising team. The fund-raiser must focus on both the internal and external markets. Expertise and insight are required of the fund-raiser to influence donors to the benefit of a particular technikon. Other role players assisting the fundraiser are technikon personnel, students, Technikon Council members and alumni. The following recommendations to improve fundraising at technikons are proposed: effective management; motivation of role players; staff involvement in the promotion and assistance of fundraising; external role players' involvement in fundraising; and effective planning to identify, explore and utilise target m

M.Com. / Small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) prioritization is a collaborative effort by both the government and the private sector. The SA government called for support through the 1995 White Paper on National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business. The recent establishment (May 2014) of the Ministry of Small Business Development reinforces the strategic role of SMMEs in the South African economy. The prominent role played by SMMEs cannot be overemphasized...

Purpose: with the recent establishment of Small Business Development department, the ministry is tasked and will be responsible for ensuring that the business environment is enabling for new Small to Medium businesses. The real issue and the point of interest in researching this particular dissertation is the available literature around the issue of the SME sector which indicates that new SMEs in South Africa do not move from the first stage (existence) to other stages such as survival, success, take off and resource maturity. The study seeks to inaugurate two specific challenges (difficulties in accessing finance and to examine if there is sufficient non-financial SME incubators and mentorship programs post funding allocation). The area of study focused on SMEs that are concentrated in highly populated areas of Gauteng. Methodology: The study was conducted using qualitative research and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The researcher was able to get valuable information on stakeholders in the SMME sector. This was done through the use of questionnaires to businesses, government funders and incubators. Results: when posed with a question of the start-up capital, a mere 17% responded to having obtained financial assistance from government institutions, 20% from friends and family while a massive 60% indicated they have used own capital to start businesses. When the researcher posed the question of the reasons that often leads to failure, approximately 23% of businesses mentioned lack of working equipment as the core reasons for the business failure while 17% indicated that lack of business opportunities or rather contracts of supply from government departments as the main impeding factor which resulted to failure. In terms of the availability of incubators, approximately 67% of respondents indicated that there were no business incubators available in their areas of business. Approximately 57% of businesses mentioned the inability to obtain loans from government funding institutions was the major business constraint that often leads to failure. The researcher posed a question to business incubators personnel that participated in the study to gain perspective as to why do they think SMEs fail within the first year of operation. Approximately 40% of respondents alluded that, barriers to entry by big corporates in South Africa force Small and Medium Enterprises out of businesses. Other participants added that the South African government procurement system does not provide opportunities to small businesses due to lack of experience. All government funding institutions participants mentioned that in most cases SMEs finance applications are rejected due to the fact that businesses fail to present viable business proposals that show the ability for business to remain operating for a long time Implications: The above analysed study findings indicate that there is a huge gap between small businesses and government funding institutions in terms of the awareness of the available financial support to SMEs. From the government perspective, it was indicated that businesses submit business plans that are not viable. There needs to be the middle ground where business plans compilation support currently provided by SEDA awareness should be spread across SMEs operating in the highly populated areas of Gauteng. Recommendations: Access to finance is a major constraint hindering the growth and success of small enterprises. The South African government has established a number of financial support programmes aimed to assist SMEs. With these financial support programmes, most of the SMEs are unsuccessful due to the fact that they cannot easily access those funds and as a result they remain stagnant for a very long time or end up shutting down. Conclusion: The effect of credit rationing is the potential loss of opportunity and or reduction in the scale of a business, neither of which is a desirable outcome. At the most fundamental level, there are lost opportunities for the borrower and the lender. There are implications for the wider economy also. SMEs are a key source of innovation, competition and choice.

Central to the sustainable and competitive growth of the South African construction industry is a predictable cash flow through on time payment by clients to contractors. However, chronic late payments, a recurring problem in the industry, especially in the public sector, is bringing untold hardship to contractors by derailing their competitiveness and also eroding the trust among the supply chain partners to the extent that some firms end up closing business in the industry. The situation is viewed from the lean construction perspective as an obstacle that is preventing the accrual of the required value to project parties in the construction industry. This research addresses the causes of late payments to contractors and the role of the quantity surveyor (QS) in terms of influencing early payment from a lean construction perspective. A mixed method approach was used for compiling the primary data for the study. Sequentially, one hundred and two (102) quantitative and twelve (12) interview questionnaires were administered to selected contractors and construction professionals working predominantly on public sector projects. The findings revealed that the approval process for evaluation and certification by the client- appointed agent and intermediary institutions is taking longer than contractually allowed, with parties independently undertaking their evaluation prior to the certification date. This is found to be adverse to achieving consensus on the values of the works for authorisation. Other significant barriers are the lack of funds to authorise payment, random auditor general’s documentation changes, lack of administrators’ system integration and capacity to handle cyclical payment processing. Also, contractors have been found to be in default of timeously submitting complete claim documents. It is therefore recommended that the client agents should partner with the contractor in regular design and documentation reviews, arranging the payment process and should also meet jointly to prepare monthly evaluations. In addition, contractors should be mentored from the onset of the project regarding all the necessary documentation and supporting documents that will be required by the client to ensure that payment approvals are not delayed. The payment authori-sation agent’s capacity should be enhanced through training and improved powers as a singular point of control to perform efficiently and their systems and processes should be integrated to ensure that all parties are implementing the same protocols.

It has been generally accepted within the developed and developing countries of the world that SMES contributes significantly to employment creation as the world population increases and that it also contributes to the economic growth of the areas they are situated in. Finance is the blood (life) of any business, for a business to be successful it needs steady successful access to funds and post financial support which leads to actualization of ideas, leads to investment and expansion, improves access to market amongst others. This is why the impact of development finance can never be over emphasized. The aims of the study are: To understand the extent to which small and medium businesses are supported through the availability of financial assistance in Matjabeng Municipality. To establish the survival rates of businesses that has been funded and or supported and whether they are or not sustainable. In achieving the aims and objectives of the research, the researcher looked at development funds both from the supply side and the demand side. The supply side which involved semi structured interviews with consultants of government parastatals (the FDC and DETEA) who are involved in financing Small Medium Enterprises in Matjhabeng municipality. The demand side involved administering of questionnaires to Entrepreneurs in the municipality who are registered with the Local Economic Department (LED), which led to the acceptance of the hypothesis of the research that development finance actually helps in the growth of small medium enterprises but in conjunction with post financial support such as bookkeeping, accounting, monitoring and evaluation. The researcher also discovered some findings amongst others which includes: The most effective ways entrepreneurs heard about funding in the municipality are through the media and word of mouth. Most of the entrepreneurs that received some type of funding are startups. More entrepreneurs that had access to funds also got some post financial business support. Financial assistance to entrepreneurs yielded improvements after respondents received financial assistance, the range of goods offered was improved and more jobs were created, entrepreneurs were able to obtain better business premises either by renting or buying and entrepreneurs had access to better equipment. Some of the recommendations of this study includes; The municipal government should help small and medium enterprises in the municipality by linking them to new markets. Effective monitoring and evaluation systems should be put in place by development funders and non-financial support services. Entrepreneurial skills development should be provided by the public and private agencies by organizing workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs in order to expose them to business opportunities that are sustainable and viable.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Statistics have shown that 227 companies and close corporations were liquidated during 1993. In addition 386 private persons, sole proprietors and partnerships were adjudged insolvent. These liquidations and insolvencies came about in all industries. By making use of ratio analysis, management can identify early danger signs and determine the presence of weaknesses in their business. There are some other critical factors and aspects that become evident from everyday trading activities that also point to danger signs. Management should be mindful and become aware of the danger signs at an early stage so that corrective action may be taken during a recessionary period. Numerous management aids in the field of financial discipline are at the disposal of management when applying corrective action. The core principles of effective asset management covering cash flow management, credit control, stock control and asset control should be employed to ensure survival during difficult times. Furthermore it is of critical importance that management makes use of the correct sources of financing and knows where to obtain it. It is also important that management addresses the other functional disciplines within the business. Management should continue the function of marketing and selling its products. Checklists containing useful questions should be applied to generate maximum sales. Production and sales should, however, be synchronised. Effective production management aids should be applied to create this harmony. It is also necessary that products be continually developed and that research into new areas be conducted. Management should handle labour relations and political and legal aspects with great sensitivity during recessionary periods. All employees deserve fair treatment and should be respected for their convictions. Appropriate general management principles should be applied at all times including effective leadership, motivation, communication and company philosophy. By making use of the proposed management aids, management can considerably improve the chances of the undertaking to survive a recession.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016. / The biotech sector is highly specialized, with long development time lines, high risk and high investment financing requirement, however with high returns. At a global scale, the USA and Europe are the most important markets, accounting for half of the global biotech patents. In 2012, the USA held 46.6% of the global sales in this sector with the European Union at 28.5%, Japan at 8.4% and BRICS at 3.4%. Much of the growth (29.3%) is however, expected in emerging markets. The South African government has invested an amount of approximately R1 billion in the period from 2003 to 2011 in the Biotechnology start-ups. It is not clear whether a return on this investment has been realized. Thus, the aim of this work is to investigate what is the investment performance of the South African Biotechnology industry, what funding models have been used and suggest models that would be appropriate for Biotechnology start-ups to result in an improved investment performance. The methods applied included reviewing various published journal articles, industry reports and lastly having structured expert interviews with major funders in the South African Biotechnology industry that is, the IDC, TIA, the dti and DST. The findings indicate that when compared to the development markets, the composition of the SA biotechnology sector lags behind in terms of the number of companies that are in existence, publically listed companies, revenue generated by companies in this sector and number of jobs created. It is evident that although government funding and percentage national GDP spend on R&D in this sector is on par with that of India and Brazil, the lack of private sector funding is much more pronounced in South Africa. In addition, the market size, industry revenues and profits generated in SA are much less than those of its emerging market counterparts. Furthermore, in addition to the financing environment that is not broad enough, there are critical structural elements such as the involvement of universities, alliances with large corporates and the role of the stock market in raising capital that need to be addressed. It is thus, suggested that the South African government reviews its current funding models in an effort to realize a return on its investments. Two models are proposed in this work. Firstly, government-private sector matching funds linked to an incubator and secondly, increasing the pool of funds by accessing patient capital and structuring it as VC –type fund. These models have been very successful in yielding returns in other markets and improving the impact of the sector. / DH2016

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation, 2016 / Despite the significant role that SMMEs play in the growth of developed and developing economies, they are often plagued by various constraints. Access to finance is considered as one of the major constraints that exist within businesses and is also a consequence of other issues which create an impediment towards the success of SMMEs which compromises the growth of any given economy. The pervasive issue on the lack of access to finance tends to be greater for informal businesses as opposed to formal businesses due to various aspects, such as the entrepreneurial attributes that informal business owner-managers have, which are indeed found to be lacking, consequently leading to circumstances where banks reject loan applications made by these businesses, suppliers reject any request of trade credits made by the owner-managers operating these businesses and potential investors find these businesses to be less attractive when investing for future returns. This study has examined certain determinant factors that are embedded within the theory of entrepreneurship which are perceived to be some of the factors which in essence are considered as success drivers for the growth of all forms of businesses. More importantly, these factors have been closely analysed in the context of informal businesses with regard to whether they prove to be important factors to soliciting finance which is considered a crucial resource for the growth of informal SMMEs. In examining the perceived importance of each of these factors in relation with access to finance, as well as the perceived importance of finance in leading to growth of informal SMMEs, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed across 385 informal business owner-managers in the Gauteng province. Given that the nature of the study was quantitative, descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on the data. Various statistical methods, such as correlation analyses and multiple regressions, were employed to test the proposed hypotheses associated with the relationship of social capital, and human capital to the access to finance, and access to finance on growth. The findings reflected that social capital and human capital are important factors to accessing finance. Furthermore, access to finance is an important factor in the growth of SMMEs in the informal sector. The study contributes towards addressing the existing gap in the knowledge base regarding the determinants of financial access for SMMEs. It also contributes towards providing direction to policy makers involved in enterprise development to reach out to informal business ownermanagers by providing training to these entrepreneurs so as to improve their social and human capital and grow their businesses to graduate into the formal sector as their contribution is needed to grow the South African economy / GR2018

Thesis (M.M.(Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017 / This study investigated whether the financial sector (private and public) is accessible to the SME’s and entry level entrepreneurs dominated by Black and poor people. The study employed a comparative analysis method; it compared the structure of the South African financial sector to those of India and Brazil, as newly industrialised countries. The finding indicates that the South African financial sector lacked the presence of state-owned financial institutions as in the comparable NCI countries to support SMEs and entry level Black entrepreneurs. The study then recommended the creation of state-owned microfinance institutions, whose performance will determine the need of state-owned banks / GR2018