Document: Market Assessment of Business Development Services Mbombela Municipality and Lukhanji Municipality

The German South African programme on Business Development Services and Local Economic Development (BDS/LED) is interested in the development of functioning markets for business development services that benefit local SMME’s, assisting them to realize their growth potential and hence create more employment. Like many other agencies, the German Development Corporation (GTZ), believes that addressing market failures to efficient and effective provision of BDS would have a higher chance of providing quality, affordable BDS to a large proportion of small enterprises than traditional, public sector driven and highly subsidized service offers. Relying on the private sector to achieve greater outreach demands a better understanding of how BDS providers could be financially self-sustainable, or even profitable. This in turn, demands a better understanding of the actual demands of BDS in specific markets.