Township economy hub of potential and opportunities

STATEMENT BY THE MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

A healthy business ecosystem in communities is good for local residents, and the broader Cape Town. The township economy in particular is a vital contributor to Cape Town’s economy. This is why the City of Cape Town’s enterprise and skills development initiatives aim to directly address the unique challenges that communities face to help equip locals and grow economic opportunities in their areas. Read more below:

Programmes include the Small Business Incubation and Development Project, where the City provides local business incubators with funding, facilities, and business development workshops.

The City’s current incubators are:

• Fintech, headquartered in Nyanga, which up-skills people for work in the furniture industry and has trained almost 7000 learners and supported more than 700 SMMEs (Info here)
• Bandwidth Barn in Khayelitsha, which not only provides a computer lab for the local community, but also teaches them technology and business skills.
• Atlantis-based Sarebi which trains entrepreneurs for working in the renewable energy sector.

The type of training given by these incubators and through partners such as Business Associate, Productivity SA, and the Small Enterprise Development Agency, empower entrepreneurs in townships with the knowledge to not simply start a business, but to keep it going.

Business owners are taken through the ins and outs of tendering in the City’s supplier development and smart procurement workshops. This allows them an opportunity to compete for bigger business and become suppliers to the broader region.

Other City initiatives and partnerships include:

• Working with  retail chains such as Pick n Pay, other private sector funders, and the Western Cape Government to design commercially sound neighbourhood convenience stores.

This is really addressing core constraints, and a fundamental aspect of this design is improving infrastructure. We are addressing this need directly with, for example, the electricity upgrade of market stores in Langa, Gugulethu, and Nyanga.

Addressing challenges of infrastructure and resources will further help to make decentralised business nodes an attractive destination for high growth sectors.

• Encouraging locally-based sector nodes makes business sense, as over 80% of those employed in the city in sectors like Information Technology Communication (ICT), Business Process Outsourcing (call centres) and the creative industry come from these areas.

This will allow residents – many of whom have been trained by our Strategic Business Partners – to work closer to home while also economically boosting the places where they live.

• Concluding the infrastructure study done by the Enterprise and Investment team, which is in support of the grow local, buy local, ethos. The outcomes will allow our business partners to work closely with residents to identify other bottlenecks to economic growth.
• The model of township investment by PayGas, an energy tech start-up that deploys cashless Pay-as-you-go-Gas™ refilling stations within communities.

Through its economic inclusion model, PayGas empowers local entrepreneurs while providing affordable cleaner energy to low income households. The Enterprise and Investment Department assisted PayGas by fast-tracking building plan approvals, allowing the company to launch quantity gas (LPG) refilling stations in Nyanga and Philippi.

• Aligning the Small Business Incubation and Development with workforce development. During the 2019/20 financial year, through the City’s service provide 1133 unemployed residents placed in jobs,  90% of residents were from traditionally economically distressed areas.
• The Jobs Connect Workforce Development Programme, following on from previous successes, which has just gone live.

This has two distinct purposes: to link businesses, particularly SMMEs and corporates to the appropriate talent; and to provide knowledge, training and employment opportunities to job seekers across the City, particularly those who do not have the means to access such opportunities.

As a City, these initiatives are about building a healthy business ecosystem, empowering communities and providing opportunities for residents in their areas, dare I say, local is lekker!

This is far from everything! The City’s Enterprise and Development Department has numerous other initiatives that directly address the needs of people in Cape Town’s townships. Because the township economy is a vital contributor to Cape Town’s economy. Find out more on www.investcapetown.com or email us at info@wordpress-local

See the video: