JOE GQABI ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (JOGEDA)

Hosts successful 8th Joe Gqabi SMME and Investment Summit

The Joe Gqabi Economic Development Agency (JoGEDA), an entity of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, hosted its 8th Joe Gqabi SMME and Investment Summit on Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at the Limakatso Conference Centre in Aliwal North.

The summit brought together stakeholders from business, government, and higher education to mull over Joe Gqabi’s economic development trajectory.

As part of the programme, 16 budding SMME owners from the district were handed NQF level 5 business development certificates from the University of Stellenbosch’s Small Business Academy (SBA).

These were presented by Joe Gqabi District Municipality Executive Mayor Cllr Nomvuyo Patricia Mposelwa,

JoGEDA Board Chairperson Gcinumzi Qotywa and JoGEDA CEO Ayanda Gqoboka.

The initiative is a strategic collaboration between JoGEDA and the University of Stellenbosch Business School that sees select small business owners ushered into an ecosystem that nurtures SMMEs through entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and technical guidance.

To date, the SBA programme has supported 150 SMMEs in Joe Gqabi.

SBA Operations Manager Gabby Emjedi said the course enables SMMEs to develop, grow and sustain their businesses. The four-course module include business essentials, finance, marketing as well as the business plan, Emjedi said.

Gqoboka said: "Eight years ago we partnered with the University of Stellenbosch Business School to train our small businesses because we established through research that the first thousand days of any business are quite tough and that most businesses fail because they lack the elementaries of presenting their cases to financiers, and they don’t understand the intricacies of their businesses.”

"The reason why we have this summit is so that we can bring in partners who are in the space so that they can talk to us about the opportunities that are out there and show us how to access those opportunities.” - JoGEDA Board Chairperson Gcinumzi Qotywa

Gqoboka continued: "This programme teaches them to understand those intricacies, and they are able to package their business plans and present them to the banks and understand their businesses much better. We have trained 150 enterprises in various sectors since 2016. These sectors include agriculture, manufacturing, and construction and we have also plugged them to various opportunities that we have.”

Cllr Mposelwa expressed her joy during her Keynote address at the summit: "This is how we as Joe Gqabi are contributing to targets outlined in 2030 National Development Plan of the country,” she said about the district facilitating the business development training of 150 SMMEs since 2016.

Outlining the purpose of the summit Qotywa said: "The focus has always been on ‘how do we get jobs?’, I think it should change to ‘how do we facilitate the creation of jobs?’ what opportunities are out there that we can tap in to be able to create jobs?”

Qotywa continued: "The reason why we have this summit is so that we can bring in partners who are in the space so that they can talk to us about the opportunities that are out there and show us how to access those opportunities.”

One of the 16 graduate SMME owners in the summit, Bukeka Bhoqwana of Zakhe Youth Development, said she was looking forward to further growing her business that already employs 25 people near Sterkspruit. Zakhe Youth Development produces cabbage, potatoes, and spinach for distribution in retail stores, hawkers and public schools. The company is in Bikizana Village on the riverbank of Senqu and make use of 10 hectares communal land that is well fenced, has storage facility and abundant water supply.

Joe Gqabi Investment Opportunities

Peach and Stone Fruit

Joe Gqabi District Municipality presents numerous agricultural enterprise opportunities, including a conclusion that stone fruit (peaches) is one of the enterprises which are highly suitable at Senqu Local Municipality. Project preliminary assessments have been conducted by the Agricultural Research Council which included soil and water samples, infrastructure requirements and challenges faced at the project site.

This project is well underway for commercialization of an initial 100ha from communal land and the process of land acquisition has started with the local traditional authority and Department of Rural Development and Land Reform together with all other stakeholders. This project also forms part of one of the District Development Model Projects.

Industrial Development Corporation project preparation support has been sought to ensure successful packaging and financing.

District Wide Pool Project

Eastern Cape is one of the highest wool producing provinces in the country. According to the latest wool statistics from Cape Wool SA, Eastern Cape accounts for roughly 38.6% of the national wool production,and Joe Gqabi District Municipality is the second highest producer of wool in the province.

The project aims to:

• contribute to an improvement in the quality of wool produced in the district

• facilitate formation of strategic partnerships with key industry role-players to leverage for training research,

• facilitate information sharing, equipment, etc;

• ensure the youth of Joe Gqabi takes advantages of the employment opportunities in the wool value chain.

Grain Project

The Crop Production Programme is a maize project facilitated by JoGEDA and implemented by Chris Hani CoOperative Development Centre in Hlankomo Village. The land is owned by the Hlankomo Primary Cooperative.

Elundini Middle-Income Housing

Joe Gqabi District Municipality and its local municipalities have an obligation to provide adequate housing for the citizens of the district. In striving to fulfill this obligation, Elundini Local Municipality signed a memorandum of understanding with JoGEDA to facilitate the development of middleincome housing in Ugie.

Senqu Commercial Property Development

The city prides itself on having five private hospitals, two government hospitals, including the largest state hospital in the North West Province and 15 clinics including mobile clinics. It also boasts the only fully contained oncology unit in the North West Province, which offers a comprehensive service at four pathological laboratories and has the latest MRI scanner at the radiology unit.

Stellenbosch University Small Business Development Programme

The primary goal of this program is to empower local SMMEs with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to thrive, grow their businesses, and become self-reliant. The program comprises theoretical training, mentoring, workshops, and engaged learning, enabling SMMEs to enhance their business operations.

The 8th Joe Gqabi SMME and Investment Summit demonstrated the strategic value of sustainable partnerships to develop and empower people as key lever in realising growth and development in a rural economy.