The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) issued a call for proposals to all potential investors interested in applying for funding through the R9 billion Jobs Fund. All applications must reach the DBSA before 31 July 2011.
- The Jobs Fund incentive will be awarded on a once-off, limited duration basis to investors in five main qualifying areas. An applicant must satisfy all eligibility criteria before an application will qualify to be considered by the DBSA investment committee.
- After all eligibility criteria have been satisfied, applications will be awarded points based on certain impact criteria by the committee and ranked according to the score obtained.
Examples of the impact criteria that will be considered include:
- Additionality
- Job creation
- Sustainability
- Capacity
- Economic development
- Innovation
- Applicants scoring the highest amount of points available in the impact criteria will then be eligible for the Jobs Fund incentive. The incentives on offer from the Jobs Fund will be available to investors in the following sectors:
| Sector | Qualifying criteria | Contribution and benefit: |
| Enterprise Development - Private Sector funders | Investments in product development, local procurement, marketing support, equipment upgrading or enterprise franchising. |
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| Infrastructure | Local infrastructure investment projects such as light manufacturing enterprise zones, local market and business hub facilities, critical transport and communication links and upgrading of infrastructure services. |
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| Support for work-seekers - Private sector funders | Support programmes with a particular focus on unemployed young people such as job search projects, training activities and support for career guidance and placement services. |
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| Support for work-seekers - Non-Private sector funders |
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| Institutional capacity building | Projects aimed at strengthening institutions through which jobs are created strengthening institutions through which jobs are created or overcoming institutional barriers to job creation. |
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Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr is in a position to assist any potential applicants with their submissions to the DBSA.