The BBSDP is a cost-sharing grant, which offers support to black-owned enterprises in South Africa, whereby the dti contributes 90 percent of the cost of a project and the approved applicant ten percent.
"The scheme provides such companies with access to business development services that assist them to improve their core competencies upgrade managerial capabilities and restructure their processes to become more competitive," the department of trade and industry (dti) said in a statement.
The revised programme would be launched in July 2010 and applications from qualifying Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMES) would be accepted from September 1, 2010.
The dti has introduced revised Network Facilitators' Guidelines with a training programme to enable network facilitators to use a diagnostic tool to identify a business's needs and what to do to make the business more competitive.
"Network facilitators are individuals who assist enterprises in compiling BBSDP proposals and/or supervise the delivery of projects that have been approved under the BBSDP," the dti said.
People wishing to become network facilitators could apply from May 17 to 28, 2010.
The dti said initially only 50 network facilitators would be selected for training and the selection criteria would take into account among other things, their experience with the BBSDP, experience in SMME consulting, and the success rate of applications they had previously submitted to the dti.
Applications must be submitted using the network facilitators' form obtainable from the dti website or from the dti Campus.
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