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BeyondCOVID NPC is a South African Non-Profit Company headquartered in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. The organisation aims to assist businesses, particularly SMMEs, deal with global shocks by creating stable and sustainable enterprise opportunities within priority sectors, through the creation and development of SMME collectives and by supporting SMMEs to reduce their risk while improving their bankability.

Liquidatioins rise by 49% Year-on-Year, SMMEs hit the hardest
A report compiled and released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) revealed that the situation in South Africa remains dire due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Released figures show that liquidations between March 2020 and March 2021 increased by 49%. This is 21% higher than the percentage liquidations recorded in February 2021. This is in line with findings from the BeyondCOVID Business Survey.

The BeyondCOVID Survey was launched by specialist management consultancy Redflank in 2020 during South Africa’s strictest lockdown with the aim of evaluating the impact of the pandemic on SMMEs in particular. The study revealed that SMMEs are 26 times more likely to close business during this pandemic period than the large corporates. Survey results further highlighted that 26% of SMMEs closed during the lockdown, 54% of respondents were working below usual capacity, and 30% needed funding intervention to enable business continuity.

Lings Naidoo, co-founder of BeyondCOVID, indicated that BeyondCOVID is committed to aiding businesses in their efforts to cope with the short- and long-terms effects of the pandemic through various interventions such as trends, forecasts and information that they can use to develop survival strategies. One such intervention is the establishment of an enabling and supportive framework to help SMMEs grow and mitigate obstacles and risks. The aim of such an intervention is to make SMMEs more resilient and less vulnerable to economic shocks such as a pandemic or even a financial crisis. To achieve this, Lings said that this would be achieved through utilising BeyondCOVID’s networks with the South African private and public sector to leverage funding and investments whilst providing access to resources and services to make SMMEs more robust, sustainable and bankable.

Nine in Ten Emerging Farmers Still struggling with Lockdown
The latest edition of the BeyondCOVID Business Survey revealed that 2021 has been a dreadful year for South Africa’s small and micro-farming community, with 63% of commercial agricultural companies and just 15% of emerging farmers returning to pre-pandemic operational levels. Etienne van Wyk, co-founder of BeyondCOVID, raised concerns about the situation, citing that small growers rely on buyers such as sidewalk food stalls, fresh produce markets, corner shops, other SMMEs, crèches and NGOs amongst other small-scale buyers, which were impacted by the hard lockdown restrictions resulting in closures. Without access to these markets, small growers were left struggling and still are.

The survey also revealed that 54% of small businesses surveyed were still operating below capacity, severely impacting emerging farmers as SMMEs account for 50% of their demand. Advocate Fay Mukaddam, the BeyondCOVID chairperson, noted that the situation affects everyone as emerging farmers are important job creators, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas where there is already a shortage of jobs. Advocate Fay also asserted that the resulting impact is an added strain on the South African government’s social security network. Additionally, Etienne highlighted that the status quo also impacts South Africa’s food security levels, especially in townships, peri-urban areas and other vulnerable areas. As majority of people in these areas rely on produce from small scale farmers, this significant drop in produce as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has adverse effects on their access to food.

BeyondCOVID held an online Making Emerging Farmers Bankable Summit on 11 May 2021 were the above-mentioned issues and others were discussed. Discussions centred on devising possible solutions to the challenges faced by emerging farmers. One such solution discoursed involved organising emerging farmers and established agriculture enterprises in SMME Collectives, a structure based on enterprise development models funded and supported by organisations such as South African National Treasury’s Jobs Fund as well as the World Bank. Collectives are beneficial to smaller farmers as they provide sustainable market access resulting in increased income, and large corporates benefit from a steady supply of different products, giving them a wider market reach.

Jaques Hugo, one of the speakers during the summit, highlighted that an added advantage of collectives is how they enable emerging farmers to become export-ready, giving them access to overseas markets to sell quality agricultural products to. Referring to research that states that the world needs 50 – 70% more food by 2050 to satisfy the growing population, Jaques added that emerging farmers are not able to tap into such a lucrative market due to a lack of practical and financial resources to scale and improve the quantity and quality of their production. These are challenges that BeyondCOVID believes can be averted by the SMME Collectives.