South Africa: Why corporates must stop undervaluing SMMEs?
If corporations want long-term, inclusive growth, they need to shift from seeing small businesses as beneficiaries to recognising them as strategic partners.
Especially in underserved and township markets, SMMEs bring local relevance, innovation, and speed to market that large companies often struggle to achieve, even with scale and budget on their side.
Too often, enterprise and supplier development programmes are run in isolation, disconnected from actual procurement. This tick-box approach misses the real opportunity: to co-create, to collaborate, and to embed small businesses in commercial ecosystems.
Inclusion is not just about access to funding. It's about access to networks, decision-makers, information and, most critically, markets.
One of the simplest yet most impactful shifts corporates can make is paying small suppliers on time. It helps them manage cash flow and grow sustainably.
Another is involving them earlier in product development or pilot projects. There's no reason these businesses can't be integrated into innovation pipelines or co-creation labs.
Transformation isn't just about representation on panels or stats in reports. It's about sustainable inclusion in income-generating opportunities. This is particularly urgent as we enter Women's Month.
Support for women-led SMMEs must go beyond campaigns. These businesses need consistent commercial opportunities, not charity, but a seat at the table.
If big business is serious about rebuilding the economy, it must reframe how it sees small business. Not as a side project. Not as a social impact. But as essential to the future of doing business in South Africa.
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