Since its establishment by government in 2011, the Jobs Fund has allocated R4.96-billion to projects catalysing innovation and investment in activities which directly contributed to sustainable job creation initiatives and long-term employment creation, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said in a Parliamentary reply.

Responding to a question by the African National Congress, Nene said 91 projects, out of 4 222 applications, had been approved, to date.

He added that the fund had also potentially leveraged an additional R6.08-billion from project partners toward job creation.

“The Jobs Fund has been designed to overcome barriers to job creation by providing public funding through four funding windows – enterprise development, infrastructure investment, support for work seekers and institutional capacity building,” he said, adding that the Jobs Fund programme differed from other government job creation initiatives, which primarily focused on the creation of short-term jobs.