FIFI PETERS: To matters of critical national importance right now. The Energy Bounce-Back Loan Guarantee Scheme has finally been launched. National Treasury announced this on August 8, 2023.
The principal reason for this delay is that it took us longer than expected to work through some of the consultations with the wide range of small business groups [and] financial institutions. There are three principal mechanisms that are contained within the scheme. Before going into that, perhaps just to mention that through the scheme we aim to, like I say, reduce the burden being experienced by small businesses, and then cumulatively hopefully contribute to the generation of about 1 000 megawatts.
FIFI PETERS: Let’s maybe put some numbers on some of the stuff that you’ve just mentioned. If I’m looking at the eligibility criteria, just based on the statement that National Treasury has issued, eligible businesses must have a maximum turnover of R300 million, which is one of the boxes that need to be ticked. Did you say that the maximum amount that a business can borrow is around R10 million rand? You say businesses can borrow about R30 000 through the scheme for resilience measures.
For the second mechanism that I mentioned, the solar-leasing mechanism, they would have to satisfy the criteria outlined by the energy service companies. VUKILE DAVIDSON: I think that’s an excellent question, and we spent a lot of time thinking around exactly these aspects. On your second point, affordability, I think that this is a really important point and is one of the critical lessons that we learnt from the preceding loan-guarantee schemes.