The Centre for Entrepreneur Development and Research (CEDAR), an SME Bank subsidiary, has launched the Social Enterprise Development Program. The program consists of two initiatives from the 2023 Malaysian budget worth RM21 million (US$4.52 million).
According to SME Bank President and CEO Aria Putera Ismail, the allocation from the budget comprises a RM20 million (US$4.3 million) allocation for the bank’s Social Enterprise Financing Scheme and a RM1 million (US$215.091) allocation for its Juara Lestari Scheme.
The Social Enterprise Financing Scheme will provide financial assistance to Ministtry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (MECD)-recognized social enterprises to finance their asset acquisition and working capital requirements. Through the Juara Lestari Scheme, CEDAR will provide capacity-building programs to support social enterprise accreditation.
“It is time for us to normalize and mainstream social enterprises by providing support such as funding, accreditation and upskilling programs.
“I hope that the government’s aspirations to empower MSMEs including social enterprises is well communicated through close cooperation and ongoing initiatives between [the] MECD and its agencies,” MECD Minister Ewon Benedick said in a statement.
Through the ‘SEMy2030’ initiative, the government targets to register a total of 5,000 social enterprises by 2025, with 20% to be accredited. The MECD currently has 511 registered social enterprises, 59 of which are accredited.
According to Ewon, the ministry has appointed CEDAR to lead a number of entrepreneurial capacity development programs for 2023 with a total funding of RM11.5 million (US$2.47 million).
The budget allocations for the two schemes were initially announced in the 2023 budget tabled by the previous government and were maintained in the MADANI budget tabled by the unity government.
In addition to the two schemes, SME Bank has a further RM1.4 billion (US$301.13 million) allocation across seven initiatives under the MADANI budget.
As part of the Shariah compliant development finance institution’s efforts to support SMEs in line with government directives, SME Bank previously launched the RM600 million (US$129.05 million) SME Recapitalization Fund as part of the Semarak Niaga Program introduced in the 2022 Malaysian budget.
Also under the bank’s sustainable finance initiatives, ISFI previously reported that SME Bank will focus on promoting ESG adoption among MSMEs through more sustainability-linked offerings in 2023.