Part 2 of 8 · The map
Mapping South Africa’s Export Funding Landscape
Five families, each answering a different question. They are designed to be stacked across the life of a transaction — not chosen between.
Part 2 of 825% through the guide
Each family answers a different question. Asking the wrong family for the wrong thing is the most common reason an application fails on arrival.
| Family | Answers the question | Principal sources |
|---|---|---|
| Grants & incentives | Who pays for finding and developing the market? | the dtic: EMIA, SSAS, CPFP; Localisation Support Fund |
| Export credit insurance | What if the buyer, or the buyer’s country, fails to pay? | ECIC; private credit insurers |
| Trade & working-capital finance | Who funds production and bridges the payment gap? | Commercial banks; specialist financiers; SEDFA |
| Development finance | Who funds new capacity and expansion? | IDC (incl. MCEP); NEF; Afreximbank; PE and mezzanine |
| Non-financial support | Who de-risks all of the above? | TISA/NEDP, export councils, provincial agencies, Export Support Desk |
Section 3Where each instrument bites
The instruments map onto the stages of a real export journey. Very few exporters need all of them at once; almost all need them in this order.
Grants come early and fund discovery. Trade finance comes at the order. Development capital comes last, when the order book is the application.
The cheque sizes involved
Log scale. From EMIA’s tens of thousands of rand to ECIC-insured structured deals in the billions. Confirm current limits directly with each institution.
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