South Africa’s SME funding challenge is often described as a shortage of capital. But the country’s R350 billion ($21.5 billion) financing gap points to a deeper problem: many small businesses remain difficult for lenders to understand because the data needed to assess their creditworthiness is incomplete, fragmented or unavailable.
The OECD’s Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2026 report estimates that South African MSMEs face a financing gap of about R350 billion, even as the number of SME funders increased from 148 in 2018 to more than 300 in 2025. The contradiction suggests that simply adding more lenders or capital may not solve the problem.
The data challenge starts with informality. About 56% of South Africa’s MSMEs are unregistered, according to the OECD. Only 7% of MSMEs used a formal financial-services provider loan when starting their businesses, while many relied on personal savings, salaries, or money from family and friends.
For banks, this creates an information problem. Traditional lending models typically depend on audited financial statements, formal credit histories, collateral and predictable cash flows. A small retailer, contractor or service business may have regular customers and strong cash flow but lack the documentation required to demonstrate that performance to a lender.
That data can exist in many different places: bank transactions, invoices, payroll records, accounting platforms, digital payments, tax records and purchase orders. The challenge is connecting those signals into a reliable picture of how a business actually operates.
South African policymakers are increasingly recognising this issue. The government’s 2025 MSME Funding Policy notes that a business-credit information initiative led by the South African Credit and Risk Reporting Association has struggled because of insufficient funding. It also highlights the potential of alternative data, including digital payments, to improve credit assessments.
Alternative data could allow lenders to move beyond traditional credit scores. Instead of asking only whether a business has borrowed before, lenders could examine evidence of recurring revenue, supplier payments, customer transactions and other operational activity.
Experian South Africa has similarly identified outdated risk models as a barrier, particularly for smaller businesses. Its 2025 assessment found that 86.5% of MSMEs seeking finance had annual turnover below R1 million, while many remained excluded by rigid lending criteria.
The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to put more money into SME lending. It is to build the data infrastructure that allows lenders to distinguish between businesses that are risky and businesses that are simply poorly documented.
Better record-keeping, consent-based data sharing, alternative credit scoring and stronger digital financial infrastructure could turn previously invisible business activity into usable credit information.
For South Africa’s SMEs, the next breakthrough in funding may therefore come not from another lending programme, but from making their economic activity easier to see, verify and understand.
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