CAPE TOWN -
Despite the coronavirus pandemic leading to many job losses and forcing businesses to close, First National Bank (FNB) has reported a growth in new business registrations.
South African entrepreneurs have used the national lockdown period to refocus their strategies in order to survive during this digital shift, with various initiatives that have surfaced over the past few months.
Through a government initiative, FNB’s data has shown that most new registrations are coming through the BizPortal.gov.za website.
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“We are seeing a strong uptake through this portal as well as an increase in applications through our normal CIPC interactions, where clients can register a company on FNB’s website,” said Lauren Deva, head of sales for transactional products at FNB Business.
“This indicates that more and more entrepreneurs want to formalise their businesses in order to take advantage of new opportunities presented as a result of Covid and further benefit from the financial support provided by both private and public sector,” she said.
Gauteng has led the way with 44% of the applications, 13% from KZN, 10% from Mpumalanga, and 9% from the Western Cape.
Deva added that they initially had an average of 700 registrations a month and during the lockdown period between April and the end of August, there’s been an increase of 14 000 registrations - averaging 2 800 registrations a month.
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