The institutions charged with supporting South Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises gathered once again under a single roof, and the questions they put to themselves were pointed: who provides what support, on what terms, and whether the country’s entrepreneurs are being equipped to comply, compete and endure beyond the next economic shock.
That was the frame for the 10th Standard Bank SME Summit, hosted in partnership with Business Day under the theme “Resilient. Relevant. Ready.” The programme, steered by award-winning broadcast journalist Gugulethu Mfuphi as emcee and host, moved with pace and cohesion from resilience and growth to relevance and internationalisation. It reads less like a slogan and more like a checklist of what enterprise development must actually deliver.
Opening the summit, Deenash Pillay, head of Small Business and Segments for Business and Commercial Banking at Standard Bank South Africa, reflected on a decade of conversations about what SMEs need to connect, learn, grow and access opportunities. He was followed by Business Day editor Luke Feltham, whose remarks combined economic reflection with nostalgia, recalling the corner café and the familiar ritual of returning empty glass bottles for a few cents. The point was an institutional one as much as a sentimental one: South Africa’s economy is not only found in boardrooms and listed companies, but in the small businesses embedded in communities, and the bodies that serve them should be judged accordingly.
The first panel put resilience under the microscope, and with it the question of what a major financial institution owes the businesses it funds. Thembi Dlamini, regional lead: Business and Commercial Banking Offshore, South Africa, at Standard Bank Group, was joined by Zwelakhe Mndebele, founder and MD of All-In-1, and Zanele Mgidi-Mpande, owner of SDK Cosmetics. Dlamini positioned the bank’s role as extending beyond conventional funding, pointing to access to markets, credible partners, financial capital and information as tools that can help businesses expand into other African markets. For entrepreneurs considering regional growth, the bank’s presence across multiple jurisdictions can provide a bridge into markets that may otherwise appear difficult to navigate.
Mndebele and Mgidi-Mpande illustrated why that support matters in practice. Their businesses have had to evolve in response to infrastructure constraints, affordability pressures, supply-chain disruption and changing customer needs. Their experiences reinforced the panel’s central point: resilience is not simply enduring difficult conditions but finding ways to adapt without losing sight of the business being built.
By contrast, the second panel shifted from resilience to relevance, and to the mechanics of the enterprise-development ecosystem available through Standard Bank. Koketso Mokoditoa, manager: Regional Enterprise Development at Standard Bank, was joined by Lisa Phendla, co-founder of chat platform Teta, and Monwabisi Thethe, CEO of The Art & Bubbles Affair. Beyond financing, the bank’s offering includes business-development support, coaching, access-to-market opportunities and supplier-development programmes. The panel also detailed funding mechanisms such as purchase-order funding, grant funding and credit top-ups, which can assist qualifying businesses with equipment, stock, commercial assets, property and franchising. The qualifier matters: eligibility and qualification sit at the heart of whether such programmes translate into real access.
The discussion stressed that relevance requires more than a good product. Entrepreneurs need to understand where their businesses stand in their growth journey, what they need, and how to demonstrate sustainability and bankability. Technology emerged as an enabler, with the panel highlighting the need to meet customers where they are, whether through digital platforms, social media, WhatsApp or an integrated online and physical customer experience.
Meanwhile, the final panel extended the conversation beyond South Africa’s borders, where readiness becomes a matter of compliance as much as ambition. Luthando Vuba, head: Trade Development at Standard Bank, was joined by Tshepo Mohlala, founder and creative director at Tshepo Jeans. Vuba emphasised that market access begins with understanding whether a market actually exists for what a business is selling. The bank’s exporter-readiness programme is designed to help SMEs develop market intelligence and understand what is required to enter new markets, including questions of demand, certification, compliance and the practical requirements of exporting. For Mohlala, international growth is also about patience and building a brand with longevity in mind; his ambition to create a business that could still exist a century from now offered a counterpoint to the pressure for rapid expansion.
Across the three conversations, the bank’s role emerged in increasingly expansive terms: from helping businesses access capital and markets, to developing their capabilities, and ultimately preparing them to compete beyond familiar borders. Resilience is the capacity to withstand and adapt. Relevance is the ability to understand a changing customer and market. Readiness is having the systems, relationships and knowledge to act when opportunity arrives. For South Africa’s SMEs, building for the long haul may require all three.
This article was sponsored by Standard Bank.