Digitisation boost for small firms
Cell giant partners with EC business chamber
SUPPORTING local businesses will help reduce unemployment, in turn easing the pressure on the government to employ people, said Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle this week.
Growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through intensified state support would lead to creation of jobs, he told his audience at the East London Golf Club on Tuesday.
The occasion was the signing of a partnership between Vodacom and the Eastern Cape Chamber of Business (Eccob) which is to devise digitisation programmes for SMEs.
Over and above faster internet connections and mobile and broadband services, through the partnership local firms will have early access to mobility solutions like Business Booster, which is a mobile platform that allows providers to quote, invoice and accept payments digitally.
Addressing the business people and municipal administrators from across the province at the gathering, Masualle described the partnership as “strategic and relevant”, and as a “momentous development”.
It was a “giant step” towards relating and competing at the level of the new world standard – using technology to transact as business people,” said Masualle.
He said the provincial government had realised that the “traditional way” of having “many people employed by government is an unsustainable view which does not work”.
“It has to be that through growing SMEs we create opportunities for employment. Studies have suggested that it is SMEs that help in growing jobs.
“We cannot succeed all by ourselves in creating jobs. We can only do it when we work together with the private sector,” Masualle said.
In a bid to promote local entrepreneurs his government had resolved to procure “certain items” from only local manufacturers, he added.
Vodacom business chief officer Vuyani Jarana said the digital economy was the single most important driver of growth, innovation and competitiveness on the continent, and it held “huge potential” for South Africa. Small businesses had no option but to embrace the digital economy, he said, adding Vodacom’s partnership with Eccob marked “the beginning of an exciting digital journey”.
The Eastern Cape is the first province to have entered into such a partnership with Vodacom.
It will see the network giant providing resources to facilitate training and adoption of SME services to the chamber and its members.
Jarana said the SME supportive technology was a fixed solution available to all network subscribers.
Enterprise mobility applications and cloud solutions enabled SMEs to operate from anywhere and at any time, he added.
Other services that will be offered through the chamber include One Net Business, a platform that provides clients with an “intelligent voice solution through advanced telephony”.
“It allows customers to integrate and link their company mobile phones and land lines, providing a converged fixed and mobile solution.
“Our goal is to make all ICT and operational requirements a seamless process for small businesses.
“This will enable them to focus on their core business without any unnecessary distractions,” Jarana said.
Eccob provincial secretary Andile Nontso said he was proud that the provincial chamber of business had partnered with Vodacom to promote digital transformation among its members.
“We are confident that this partnership will go a long way towards promoting the growth of small businesses in the Eastern Cape, which in turn will boost the regional economy,” Nontso said.