Chikunga urges funders to turn women’s funding commitments into action

By Lebone Rodah Mosima

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga has called on development finance institutions and private-sector partners to convert funding commitments to women-owned businesses into signed term sheets within the next 12 months.

Chikunga said women entrepreneurs continued to face structural barriers that prevented them from accessing funding intended to support and grow their businesses.

Speaking at Womanpreneur Pitch & Match 2026 at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in Sandton on Friday, Chikunga said the platform had evolved from a competition into an instrument of economic transformation by connecting women entrepreneurs with capital, markets, investors and supply chains.

She said the next challenge was to turn these opportunities into meaningful economic inclusion, drawing on the legacy of the women of 1956 and the youth of 1976.

“It is fitting, then, that we gather in this institution of investment and capital formation to confront one of the most important unfinished tasks of our democracy, the economic empowerment of women,” Chikunga said.

“Imagine a South Africa where every woman with a viable business idea has access to the capital, markets, networks and opportunity she needs to succeed. Imagine a South Africa where innovation is not limited by gender, and opportunity is not determined by who one knows.”

Chikunga said the struggle for economic empowerment continued in boardrooms, investment committees, procurement systems and ownership structures.

She highlighted government’s preferential procurement policy, which requires at least 40% of public procurement opportunities to benefit women-owned and other designated enterprises.

“The Public Procurement Act, signed into law in July 2024, is now being operationalised through draft regulations that will make these commitments enforceable, and not aspirational,” she said.

“Government has already trained close to 6,000 women-owned businesses to bid for and win state contracts, and departments are required to monitor and report on women’s participation in every procurement process.”

Chikunga said government had also invested directly in women-owned businesses.

In May, the Department of Small Business Development and the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (SEDFA) launched Imbali For Her, a R897 million, three-year blended finance programme offering up to R5 million per applicant.

The programme provides grants of 40% for able-bodied women and 50% for women with disabilities and is expected to support about 975 women-owned businesses and sustain 2,250 jobs, initially focusing on the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State.

“SEDFA has already disbursed R454 million to women-owned businesses in a single quarter and has reached almost half a million women beneficiaries over the past three years,” Chikunga said.

She said the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s Transformation Fund was a R100 billion instrument anchored in the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and explicitly targeting women, youth and persons with disabilities.

Chikunga said the fund’s Integrated Financing Group, working with the Industrial Development Corporation and National Empowerment Fund, had approved funding for more than 590 enterprises worth R26 billion, including R4 billion directly benefiting SMMEs and women- and youth-owned businesses.

“The IDC alone has earmarked approximately R9 billion for women-led businesses, and both the Public Investment Corporation and the National Empowerment Fund have committed to dedicated special-purpose vehicles for women-owned enterprises,” she said.

“These are not small numbers. But commitments and approvals are not disbursements, and disbursements are not yet jobs.”

Chikunga challenged SEDFA, the NEF, IDC, dtic, PIC and private-sector partners to convert their commitments into signed term sheets within 12 months for businesses such as those participating in the pitch event.

She said the department’s monitoring had found that some venture capital and development finance initiatives, while commendable in principle, were designed in ways that created barriers for the women they were intended to support.

“The reality is that access remains out of reach for many women entrepreneurs,” she said.
Chikunga cited the example of a woman entrepreneur in Greytown who had established a successful restaurant and sought funding to expand the business and create jobs.

According to Chikunga, the woman was told her application could not be approved because her financial records were not managed by a Chartered Accountant.
“How can we expect a small business owner, whose profits may not even cover the salary of a Chartered Accountant, to meet such requirements before she is given the opportunity to grow?” she asked.

“We cannot continue to judge emerging enterprises by the standards of large, established companies and then claim surprise when women-owned businesses struggle to access finance.”

She called on development finance institutions to design more innovative and enabling funding mechanisms that facilitate entry, build capacity and help entrepreneurs become investment-ready rather than excluding them at the first hurdle.

Chikunga said the success of women’s economic empowerment should not be measured by the amount of funding allocated, but by how many women accessed capital, grew their businesses and created jobs.

“If we are serious about women’s economic empowerment, then access to finance must move beyond availability and become a genuine opportunity,” she said.

She said women entrepreneurs were central to South Africa’s development agenda, contributing to job creation, industrial development, innovation and inclusive growth.
“Women’s economic empowerment is therefore not only a matter of social justice; it is a growth and development strategy,” she said.

Chikunga said South Africa had yet to translate its policy and legislative framework into the scale of economic empowerment required to achieve meaningful economic justice for women.

She cited global evidence showing that women-owned businesses continue to face disproportionate barriers to finance and growth.

“The International Monetary Fund has shown that excluding women from full economic participation imposes real and measurable costs on national economies. No nation can achieve its full economic potential while underutilising half of its talent,” she said.

As chair of the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group, Chikunga said South Africa had prioritised women’s financial inclusion, the care economy and eliminating gender-based violence and femicide.

She said financial inclusion should extend beyond opening bank accounts to enabling women to own productive assets, secure investment capital and turn opportunities into sustainable businesses.

Chikunga also called on corporate South Africa to join government and development finance institutions in establishing a new Women’s Economic Empowerment Compact.

The compact would focus on increasing procurement spend directed to women-owned businesses and publicly measuring outcomes; ensuring women-owned enterprises are included in supplier databases and strategic sourcing programmes; strengthening supplier development through mentorship, compliance support and technology transfer; providing innovative financing and patient capital; and supporting women as manufacturers, exporters and industrialists, rather than only suppliers.

“The true measure of today’s success will be by our actions. To our development finance institutions, the dtic, the IDC, the NEF, SEDFA and the PIC, my request is let disbursements happen within twelve months, against a named pipeline that includes today’s Top 10 finalists and the 2025 alumni who have already proven they can execute,” she said.

“Nine of you will not receive that prize this afternoon. All ten of you are already employing South Africans. That is a standing no panel can confer and no panel can withdraw.”

Chikunga said the platform’s success would ultimately not be measured by who won the competition, but by how many participating businesses returned the following year with more customers, capital, contracts and employees.

“Empowered women do not only empower nations, but they also build industries, create jobs, grow economies and change the future,” she said.

“The women of 2026 demand economic power. Our collective responsibility is to ensure that access to finance, markets, capital and opportunity no longer block their way.”

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