THE SBCGT MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME	printversion

The SBCGT mentorship programme is designed to provide mentorship services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or Individuals wanting to start their own business or whish to acquire existing business, but who cannot provide the required security to access commercial bank loans. In all the cases the SMEs should be able to qualify for SBCGT guarantees. All existing SBCGT clients will also qualify for mentoring if required.
The programme will guide and assist the small business community in the intricacies of managing and administering their enterprises and to improve their sustainability and success. In so doing the SBCGT expect to reduce the risk associated with SMEs that obtain loan finance from commercial banks with the assistance of the SBCGT guarantee. The SBCGT mentorship program will address two distinctively different aspects of loan finance: namely pre-loan and post-loan support services. In the pre-loan phase the SBCGT assists with the development of a business plan by facilitating the engagement of a mentor to assist a client with the production of a professionally developed business plan and compiling all relevant documents required for a loan or facility application. It is not the intention to prepare the business plan from scratch, but rather to provide assistance to those entrepreneurs who has applied for loan finance, and the bank has indicated that they would be prepared to approve the application subject to refinement of the business plan. (No more than 20 % of the fund to be used in the pre-loan phase). In the post-loan phase SBCGT will again facilitate the engagement of a mentor to provide management support to an entrepreneur after a loan has been granted by a PFI. The duration and level of support will be dictated by the stage of business development and the experience of the entrepreneur e.g. start-ups, existing businesses, specialty business etc. The cost of these services will be divided between the SBCGT, the PFI and the entrepreneur.
The mentor can also provide assistance in terms of monitoring and evaluation (M & E) of the small business during the loan period by periodically visiting the small business and verifying performance, location, employment creation and any other issues that occur such as cash flow problems, RD cheques and or other non-compliance to the loan agreement.
The SBCGT mentorship programme will utilise the services of accredited business consultants, attorneys, auditors and accountants, training organisations, academics from relevant departments, bankers, retired business persons, other service providers and the business sector.