Part 3 of 8 · Grants
EMIA, SSAS, CPFP and the Tariff-Response Measures
EMIA is the workhorse of South African export promotion and usually the first funding an exporter ever receives. It is also the scheme most often lost on a single procedural rule.
Section 4.1Export Marketing and Investment Assistance (EMIA)
Administered by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, EMIA partially compensates exporters for qualifying costs incurred in developing export markets for South African products and services, and in recruiting foreign direct investment. It is a reimbursement scheme: it does not advance cash, and it does not fund production.
What it pays for
- Individual exhibition participation and in-store promotions — economy-class return airfare, transport of samples, stand construction, exhibition fees, subsistence, interpretation and connectivity costs, within published caps (in the order of R50 000 per exhibition for individual participation).
- Primary market research and FDI recruitment — travel and research costs for approved visits to identified markets, including registration of patents, trademarks and quality marks in foreign markets.
- Individual inward-bound missions — bringing a prospective foreign buyer to South Africa to inspect your operation.
- Group offerings — national pavilions at major international trade shows, outward selling and investment missions, and group inward buying and investment missions, typically organised through export councils and the dtic itself.
Who qualifies
- South African manufacturers and exporters; export trading houses representing at least three SMMEs or HDI-owned businesses; commission agents representing at least three such businesses; and export councils or industry associations representing at least five entities.
- In practice, adjudication favours firms with at least two consecutive years of trading history, demonstrated competitiveness in the domestic market, and either formal export-readiness certification or a historical export record.
- SMMEs and businesses owned by historically disadvantaged individuals are an explicit priority of the scheme.
The four rules that decide outcomes
Get these wrong and nothing else matters
- 1Apply before you spend. Approval must precede the activity; costs incurred before approval are not reimbursed. This single rule accounts for a large share of failed claims.
- 2Apply through the Online Incentive Solution (OIS). All individual applications go through the dtic’s OIS portal; emailed and hand-delivered applications are no longer accepted.
- 3Respect the limits. Individual participation is limited to four applications per calendar year; SACU markets (Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia) are excluded; no events between 10 December and 10 January; private exhibitions are excluded.
- 4Keep the paper. Claims are paid against invoices and proof of payment, and applicants may be subject to site visits. Material changes to an approved activity must be notified and approved before the event.
Section 4.2Sector Specific Assistance Scheme (SSAS)
SSAS is EMIA’s institutional sibling: an 80:20 cost-sharing grant paid to export councils, joint action groups and industry associations — not to individual firms — to fund sector-level export development projects, emerging-exporter development and generic market promotion.
For the entrepreneur, the significance is indirect but real: a well-run export council uses SSAS to fund the pavilions, buyer databases, market studies and emerging-exporter programmes its members draw on. Joining and actively using your sector’s export council is therefore one of the highest-return moves available.
Section 4.3Capital Projects Feasibility Programme (CPFP)
The CPFP is a cost-sharing grant that contributes to the cost of feasibility studies likely to lead to projects that increase local exports and stimulate demand for South African capital goods and services — typically studies for projects outside South Africa that would be supplied from South Africa.
If your export ambition is project-shaped rather than product-shaped — an EPC contract in the region, a plant supplied into the DRC or East Africa — the CPFP can carry a meaningful share of the bankable-study cost that would otherwise be dead money if the bid fails. Caps and sharing ratios are set in published guidelines and adjusted over time; confirm the current ceiling with the dtic before budgeting.
Section 4.4Tariff-response measures and the Localisation Support Fund
In response to the US tariff shock, government assembled a package that remains live in 2026.
| Instrument | What it provides |
|---|---|
| The Export Support Desk (the dtic) | A direct point of contact for affected companies: advisory services on alternative markets, market-entry processes, compliance requirements, and linkages to South African embassies and high commissions abroad |
| The Localisation Support Fund (LSF) | Working with the dtic, IDC and other agencies, the LSF issued an open call for firms in affected value chains, offering targeted competitiveness and efficiency support |
| The IDC’s Export Competitiveness Support Programme | Concessionary funding under the MCEP umbrella, specifically for South African manufacturers exporting to the United States who have been hurt by the tariff increases |
