BOSA survey reveals SMME crisis demanding attention in next week’s Budget

Ahead of next week’s 2025 Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance, Build One South Africa (BOSA) today unveils the results of our SMME Survey, conducted with approximately 40 small business owners and entrepreneurs from across the country.

The survey, commissioned by BOSA, captures the voices of entrepreneurs operating in wide-ranging sectors, and reflects a broader crisis in governance, service delivery, and economic policy that is undermining economic growth, job creation and value add.

The survey’s data exposes a harsh truth: South African small businesses are being strangled by bureaucracy, ignored by state institutions, overlooked for funding, and left to operate in a collapsing infrastructure environment.

Key Findings

Preliminary results from our ongoing national SMME survey – based on approximately 40 submissions are as follows:

• 85% of respondents employ just 1–2 people, highlighting the job-creating power of micro-enterprises if properly supported.
• Nearly half (46%) have been operating for 2–4 years, reflecting a young but resilient sector determined to survive despite systemic obstacles.
• The most common challenges cited include:
  • Inability to access capital due to lack of collateral or formal financial records
  • Difficulties in registering or licensing businesses
  • No assistance in access to markets, infrastructure, or institutional support
• Every single respondent rated access to government or bank funding as “zero”, describing it as effectively “impossible.”
• 100% reported receiving no training, no market access assistance, and no infrastructure support from government.

These findings confirm that despite political promises, the lived reality for SMMEs is one of exclusion, neglect, and missed economic opportunity.

The message from BOSA’s latest survey is clear: South Africa’s small businesses are at breaking point. Without urgent reform, another year of government inaction could push many over the edge. Budget 2025 must be the turning point.

South Africa’s entrepreneurs are ready to drive growth, create jobs, and build the economy. They don’t need handouts, just a government that stops blocking their path and starts backing their potential.

We cannot allow another budget to come and go while entrepreneurs and small businesses are left behind. Therefore, BOSA has launched The Growth Charter for South Africa – a bold, practical path to 5% economic growth, centred on urgent reforms.

These include cutting red tape to support small businesses; investing in infrastructure and energy; supporting skills development and training; reforming labour laws to unlock youth employment; expanding trade; and bringing more private sector partners into public service delivery

On Wednesday, the Finance Minister has only one job: to fund a plan that can grow South Africa’s economy. And BOSA’s Growth Charter should form the basis of that plan.