Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) - Production Incentive (PI)

The PI is aimed at improving the competitiveness of the clothing, textiles, footwear and leather goods manufacturing industries, as well as cut, make and trim operators and design houses. 

There are two components of this grant:

• Upgrade Facility: The money available from this grant can either be used to upgrade your facilities, develop employees, develop new products or to develop a market. In other words, this grant wants to help companies in this sector improve their competitiveness. 
• Interest subsidy: The grant also provides an interest subsidy for working capital. This means it will pay the interest charged on your business’ overdraft based on the prime interest rate. If the interest is higher than the prime interest rate, your business will have to pay the remaining interest, but this should make banks more willing to offer your business an overdraft for working capital. 

If your company is already receiving funding from other government incentives, the total amount of funding received from all schemes must not exceed the total cost of the project. You can’t make a profit off government grants. You must be able to prove profitability, and the more profitable your business, the higher the grant that is available. Because of this, this grant is not suitable for startups. 

Eligibility criteria

• Your business is solvent, profitable and sustainable.
• The sector you operate in aligns with requirements (SIC code 3).
  
• Your business is registered in South Africa.
• Your business is bargaining council compliant.
• Your business complies with environmental regulations applicable to its operations.

Application process

NOTE: This is an annual programme and applications close in January each year.  The program is monitored by the IDC on behalf of the dti.

The programme guidelines can be downloaded here. A guide to the application process can be downloaded here.