MANUFACTURING
Black Business Council rejects funding deal for industrialists
FNB and the DTI signed a pledge at the unveiling of the Black Industrialist Scheme to improve access to funding
The Black Business Council (BBC) has scoffed at the Department of Trade and Industry’s and First National Bank’s (FNB’s) partnership to bolster manufacturing through the black industrialists programme, dismissing it as nothing more than a public relations exercise. FNB and the department signed a pledge at the unveiling of the Black Industrialist Scheme, to improve access to funding for black industrialists to roll out 100 programmes by March 2018. The partnership would facilitate information-sharing regarding the department’s incentive programmes. BBC secretary-general George Sebulela said: "The way the agreement has been entered into, it sounds like an agreement to utilise FNB for access to information rather than finance." The BBC would have preferred to see an agreement about funding at a discounted rate rather than an agreement about information sharing. "The statement does not detail access to finance. What finance options are black industrialists being offered that makes FNB ...
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