{"id":6455,"date":"2021-03-16T18:18:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T18:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=6455"},"modified":"2021-03-16T17:59:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:59:42","slug":"sa-covid-19-assistance-initiative-props-up-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sa-covid-19-assistance-initiative-props-up-businesses","title":{"rendered":"SA Covid-19 assistance initiative props up businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>JOHANNESBURG &#8211; An initiative set up to help South African businesses cope with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic said on Tuesday it had helped 320 stay afloat, saving more than 2000 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>The Covid Business Rescue Assistance (COBRA) initiative released its statement a week after data from the national statistics agency showed South Africa\u2019s economy contracted by seven percent in 2020 &#8212; after edging up 0.2 percent in 2019 &#8211;as the health crisis took its toll.<\/p>\n<p>The success of the initiative shows that South Africa needs innovative solutions to save and bolster the businesses that have survived the economic ravages of the last year, COBRA chief executive officer Adam Craker said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese solutions will require a fundamental rethink of how South Africans do business,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Craker said COBRA, South Africa\u2019s largest non-profit organisation for distressed businesses, was started a year ago by management consultancy IQbusiness, law firm Schindlers Attorneys, turnaround experts Engaged Business Turnaround and an ecosystem of 90 partner enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>This was in response to the need to support small and medium companies as they grappled with the impact of the pandemic against the backdrop of an already ailing economy.<\/p>\n<p>The more than 320 businesses which have received direct assistance operate across a diverse range of sectors, including the retail, automotive and restaurant industries.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative\u2019s virtual \u2018war room\u2019 brings together the expertise of professionals in law, business, technology and consulting to assist businesses in financial distress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is an effective and innovative answer to the question of how we can save both small and large businesses in a recession without government bailouts,\u201d said Craker.<\/p>\n<p>COBRA also offers businesses and entrepreneurs free consultations and webinars that cover restructuring and refinancing, accessing unemployment insurance for staff, moving onto digital platforms as well as business rescue and business turnaround.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThousands more businesses and jobs can be saved by sharing knowledge, skills and expertise with distressed businesses that are navigating an uncertain future in an increasingly constrained economy,\u201d Craker said.<\/p>\n<p><b>African News Agency<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. JOHANNESBURG &#8211; An initiative set up to help South African businesses cope with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic said on Tuesday it had helped 320 stay afloat, saving more than 2000 jobs. The Covid Business Rescue Assistance (COBRA) initiative released its statement a week after data from the national statistics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":6454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-6455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SA Covid-19 assistance initiative props up businesses - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"JOHANNESBURG - An initiative set up to help South African businesses cope with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sa-covid-19-assistance-initiative-props-up-businesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SA Covid-19 assistance initiative props up businesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JOHANNESBURG - 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