CreditEase and the New Growth Path CreditEase is well poised to benefit from the New Growth Path that Ebrahim Patel, the minister of Economic Development, has proposed. One of the core components of the plan is to increase the amount of government funding to boost employment prospects. South Africa needs labour absorption in an era where Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has not necessarily translated into employment stickiness.

Structured finance and funding agencies need to get the funds into the hands of entrepreneurs and job-creating ventures. This can be done by using CreditEase and its structured finance modules that handle the complexity of structured finance products. The National Empowerment Fund (NEF) – already a user of CreditEase – and funds like them need a complex calculator to tailor make deals ranging from easy-to-pay-back scenarios for small entrepreneurs to large job-growth and project based contracts. These types of deals can have tranche payments, tiered interest rates and multiple funders dealing in senior and mezzanine facilities.

The strength of CreditEase is that it can translate the custom-made payment plans for each arrangement into contracts that can be monitored for performance and it allows for analysis of funds and customers with meaningful reports.

1. A key point of the New Growth Path is to help strengthen and consolidate initiatives to support small and micro enterprise. The components that are relevant to CreditEase customers and the financial services industry are:A one-stop shop and single funding agency for small and micro business established through consolidation of Khula, SAMAF and IDC funding, amongst others, to both improve access and reduce the overhead costs of government in order to make more resources available to end-users. CreditEase, with its competitive edge at NEF, is positioned to gain the government as a more close ally and customer.
   
2. To strengthen access to micro-finance for small enterprises in order to bring more citizens into economic activities, and thus widen the enterprise pool in the country as a key step to promote the growth of new enterprises. Once again, with the implementation of over 30 customers using CreditEase micro-finance software, we have assisted in accomplishing these objectives.

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