North West Covid-19 Relief Fund benefits over 3 800 successful applicants across all provincial districts

Since the inception of the North West Covid-19 SMME Relief Fund, 3 876 successful applicants have received pay-outs.
“The Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT) established the fund in June 2020 to bring about relief to both formal and informal businesses from the North West Province that were adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.” – MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi
Applications for the North West Covid-19 Relief Fund opened in June 2020 and since its inception, the North West Development Corporation as the implementing agency has been labouring relentlessly to capture, process, evaluate and pay-out successful applications.

As at the closing date for applications, a total of 6 362 applications have been received and processed. As a result, 2 978 applicants from the informal sector and 898 applicants from the formal sector have received their relief fund pay-outs.

North West Covid-19 Relief Fund pay-outs amount to a total of R19 223 000 relief funding paid out to date.
To date, 993 applications were declined because of the following reasons: the applicant already received funding from another relief fund; there were duplicate applications on the system, applications were for non-eligible activities or the applicants resided outside of the North West Province.

There are, however, a total of 1 493 applications that have been flagged for having either completed the wrong application or who have their supporting documents outstanding. This prevents their application from being further processed for approval and pay-out. Examples of such outstanding supporting documents include copies of identity documents, copies of the trading license or an affidavit and for the formal sector, outstanding documents include the CIPC Document, company bank statements (Jan – March 2020), copies of IDs and signed-off application forms.
We sincerely apologise for delays in pay-out to some successful applicants due to, amongst others, inactive or changes in banking details.

Applicants with outstanding documentation will receive a message alerting them that they have supporting documents outstanding that need to be urgently submitted.

To aid the process of identifying applicants with outstanding documentation, a list of applicant companies, including their reference numbers, will be made available on the NWDC website – on www.nwdc.co.za.

Outstanding documents must be submitted to the NWDC as a matter of urgency.
For those companies listed – to verify which supporting documents are outstanding, applicants are requested to either contact the call centre 017 422 0116 or send an email to documents@nwdc.co.za to confirm which documents are outstanding, quoting their reference number in the subject of the email.

Two submission methods are available:
1. Email the outstanding supporting documents, with the reference number in the subject line to documents@nwdc.co.za
2. Hand-deliver the documents, clearly-marked to any NWDC branch, and request a proof of delivery.
Only applicants who have outstanding supporting documents are to submit documents to avoid flooding the system.
Inquiries about the nature of outstanding documents should be directed to the Relief Fund Call Centre on
017 422 0116. Call centre hours: Weekdays, 08:00 – 16:30

Application enquiries, clearly stating the reference number, can also be directed to documents@nwdc.co.za
DEDECT and NWDC remain committed to keep the public updated on progress regarding the North West Covid-19 Relief funding paid out and will, in upcoming communication, provide further details such as a breakdown of recipients from specific sectors, women-owned, youth-owned and persons with disabilities that have benefitted.

Ends
Jointly issued by Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism and the North West Development Corporation
Communication Directorate

Enquiries:
B Thukubi (DEDECT) bthukubi@nwpg.gov.za or b.thukubi@gmail.com – 082 374 7461
A Marx (NWDC) annemariem@nwdc.co.za – 082 878 2559