IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dug/actaec/y2023i5p215-240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comprehensive Overview of Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprise Development in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Nomfundo P. Vacu-Ngqila

    (University of South Africa)

  • Sin-Yu Ho

    (University of South Africa)

Abstract

The small, medium, and mirco enterprise (SMME) sector is viewed as a catalyst for economic growth in the whole world due to its potential to substantially contribute towards employment creation and poverty reduction, among other things. In South Africa (SA), SMMEs have accounted for approximately 40% of gross domestic product and 47% of the workforce in the past few years. Despite the critical role of this sector in SA’s economic growth, literature on understanding its development and trends is scant. This study, therefore, provides a comprehensive analysis on the development of SMMEs in SA. We first conceptualize the term by comparing the definitions of SMMEs from various countries. We later trace the regulatory development of SMMEs during the period from 1940 to 2020. We provide an in-depth discussion on the performance of SMMEs during the period from 2008 to 2021 from different lenses such as provincial, sectoral, and demographic analyses. The results confirmed that, in terms of the number of firms, the sector has remained resilient over the reviewed period. We found that the sector contributes significantly towards economic growth and employment in SA, and this has increased over the years under review. Lastly, we identified several financial and non-financial challenges faced by SMMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Nomfundo P. Vacu-Ngqila & Sin-Yu Ho, 2023. "A Comprehensive Overview of Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprise Development in South Africa," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 19(5), pages 215-240, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:dug:actaec:y:2023:i:5:p:215-240
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dj.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/AUDOE/article/view/2472/2640
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dug:actaec:y:2023:i:5:p:215-240. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniela Robu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fedanro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.