Finance, smaller firms and employment : An abusive relationship

Presented by Gabriel Davel

Wednesday, September 6, 2023 at 12:00pm

Abstract :  this talk will discuss why smaller firms matter, in South Africa and on the continent. It will review how the distributions of credit affect smaller firms, and how that has influenced their abilities to adjust to the multiple crises of the last five years -- load-shedding, Covid19, the 2021 riots.  This local situation will be compared with what other countries are doing to direct finance towards the SME sector.

WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor Richard Ward Building.

This will be a hybrid seminar.   Please register here for the Zoom session in advance of the event.

Gabriel Davel has more than 20 years professional experience in financial regulation, development finance and consumer credit.  In 2004 he was appointed as Policy Adviser to the Department of Trade & Industry and was responsible for the co-ordination of the research into the South African consumer credit market and advised the Department in the drafting of the National Credit Act. Gabriel served on the Policy Board for Financial Regulation and was a member of the Reserve Bank’s task teams which produced the Competition in Banking Report, a report on SME Finance, an assessment of Core and Narrow Banking and was the lead consultant in a report on Consolidated Supervision.  Between 2006 and 2010 he served as the first CEO of the National Credit Regulator.  He is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.

Slides of Presentation