President Cyril Ramaphosa was emphatic in his recent State of the Nation address, as to the role of small and medium sized (SME) businesses in our economy.
“Ultimately, the growth of our economy will be sustained by small businesses, as is the case in many countries. It is our shared responsibility to grow this vital sector of the economy,” he said.
Now in its sixth year of collaboration, the MTN SA Foundation and the Datacomb Development Hub (DDH), could not agree more with our President. The MTN and DDH project is part of MTN’s Accelerated Business Development Programme which has, to date, helped nurture and grow over 100 SMEs. The project is currently looking for this year’s 20 SMEs that will benefit from this exceptional programme.
The collaboration sees the DDH providing tools to the selected ICT SMEs through a 12-month business development programme. The training helps these entrepreneurs access markets, technology and specialist skills, that will help grow their businesses.
The programme also provides custom designed solutions for local enterprise development, growth strategy development and a bouquet of additional business development services to give these SMEs the critical edge they need, over their competitors.
“At MTN we believe corporate South Africa has a responsibility to create an ecosystem that supports the development and growth of small and medium-sized businesses. Over the years, we have seen that when talented and motivated entrepreneurs are enabled with access to the right platforms, stimulus and networks, that’s when the magic starts to happen,” says Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive for Corporate Affairs at MTN SA.
“We are proud of the collaboration because we are seeing businesses coming to life that, amongst others, respond to community challenges. These ICT businesses are helping us bridge the digital divide that has too long separated our people. It is humbling to see our collective efforts yielding enterprises that are resilient, innovative, sustainable and better positioned to source business from MTN and other companies,” O’ Sullivan concludes.
To submit an application to join the MTN DDH class of 2018, please visitwww.datacomb.co.za.