Abstract
The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) implemented its Informal Micro-Enterprise Development Programme (IMEDP) to train informal traders in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) through their Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). This limited research investigated the impact of that training programme on informal traders. The research falls under core pillars two, three and four of the National Local Economic Development Framework (NFLED) 2013-2018, since it is exclusively about entrepreneurs’ skills development. Informal traders play a pivotal role in the South African economy as their contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) has increased over the years. The South African economy has an unemployment rate of 23.3 per cent and has shed 49000 jobs within the formal sector amid Q2 of 2019, while the informal economy created 114000 jobs. This shows the significance of the informal economy in realising the South African National Development Plan’s (NDP) job creation objective. However, the informal traders have been facing many challenges which hinder them from growing to their full potential, one of which is a lack of skills development. The DSBD, through SEDA, empowered 57 informal traders from NMBM by training them in financial and entrepreneurial skills development...
M.Com. (Local Economic Development)