If there’s one thing that’s certain about SA’s business landscape, it’s that it’s filled with capable entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas. Yet, even in a country that’s bursting with entrepreneurial potential, there’s a great need for resources and support.

That’s why Black Umbrellas, a non-profit enterprise development organisation, has teamed up with Sasria, a short-term insurer specialising in special risk cover, to offer a bursary-driven virtual incubation programme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the finance and insurance sectors. 

Black Umbrellas’ incubation programmes are internationally acclaimed and aim to inspire, develop, mobilise and connect entrepreneurs, solutions and resources to bring about positive economic and social change. 

Enterprise development at Black Umbrellas is about formalising businesses, maintaining their compliance and, ultimately, ensuring that they can be sustainable in increasingly competitive environments. 

The organisation recently launched an intuitive online platform called the Virtual Incubator to provide entrepreneurs with remote access to the training, mentorship and business coaching they need to take their businesses to the next level.

It’s via this online platform that Sasria and Black Umbrellas’ incubation programme for SMEs will be run. 

Bursary applications for this programme are now open to 51% and above black-owned businesses in the finance and insurance sectors.

To apply, entrepreneurs must email a brief overview of their businesses and themselves to malerato@blackumbrellas.org; this will be followed by an interviewing stage. 

The closing date for applications is February 28 2022.