\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/c6e93_3900046864.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
Discussing the KZN Funding Fair event set to take place next week are, from left, Andre Pottas of Deloitte, Nisaar Mohamed of Trade and Investment KZN, Liesel Beires of the KZN Department of Economic Development, Clive Coetzee of the KZN Treasury, and Guy Brazier, leader of Deloitte KZN.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Billions of rand in funding was available to businesses and would-be entrepreneurs to invest in company expansions or to start new ventures, but the divide between funders and entrepreneurial project promoters was holding back deal-making and economic development projects in KwaZulu-Natal. <\/p>\n
This was the view expressed by executives from auditing and business advisory firm Deloitte and provincial government officials at the launch of the KZN Funding Fair last week. <\/p>\n
The initiative is a public-private partnership between Deloitte, the KZN Treasury and the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, which will see a fair hosted in Durban next week. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are almost 100 different funding sources from the public and private sector that businesses and prospective entrepreneurs can approach. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the major banks and financial institutions, to government grant and financial support agencies, equity funds and venture capitalists, there are literally billions of rands available,\u201d said Andr\u00e9 Pottas, corporate finance boss at Deloitte KZN. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe stumbling block is the huge disconnect between funders and project promoters. They also don\u2019t know about all the potential sources out there and face complicated application processes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The KZN Funding Fair aims to help address the issue in a practical way by bringing together various funding organisations and project promoters during a two-day event. <\/p>\n
\u201cA call was made to business and entrepreneurial project promoters to submit their business ideas and plans, and we had about 100 applications.\u201d <\/p>\n
Deloitte, with provincial government officials, will select 40 project promoters who will pitch their business plans to a large group of funders during the fair. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have pre-selected 31 projects we believe have business and job creation potential,\u201d said Pottas. <\/p>\n
Clive Coetzee, of the KZN Treasury, said they were looking for \u201cbankable\u201d business plans, hence the selection process, but those who submitted projects that were not selected would also get to attend the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want business deals to come out of this event \u2013 that is why we selected projects with strong potential,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Liesel Beires, of the Economic Development Department, said projects were selected from both rural and urban areas and from various sectors. Most of the projects were in the agri-business, tourism and manufacturing sectors. <\/p>\n
Pottas said they conservatively believed that R8 billion to R10bn in investments for KZN could come about through the initiative, with the fair set to become an annual event. <\/p>\n
* The Mercury is the official media partner of the fair. For more information, go to www.kznfundingfair.co.za<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Discussing the KZN Funding Fair event set to take place next week are, from left, Andre Pottas of Deloitte, Nisaar Mohamed of Trade and Investment KZN, Liesel Beires of the KZN Department of Economic Development, Clive Coetzee of the KZN Treasury, and Guy Brazier, leader of Deloitte KZN. Billions of rand in funding was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-19160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}