SAICA Enterprise Development Cohort 6 Flagship Programme and Local SMME’s Celebrate Success

SMME’s are seen as the engine of growth and the sector that will provide the most job opportunities for the South African economy. SAICA Enterprise development recently hosted a virtual graduation of 18 SMME participants from different parts of the country, to celebrate their perseverance, job creation and financial investment opportunities.

SAICA Enterprise Development in partnership with KPMG, FTI consulting and other independent coaches implemented a 9-month virtual Flagship Programme that involved qualified professional, volunteers from different backgrounds to assist in uplifting SMME’s across South Africa. ?A rigorous process took place for the Flagship Programme to reach the desired outcome. This included a thorough recruitment process, a framework which consisted of a deep diagnostic assessment to assess all gaps in the SMME businesses and a development plan that is created to provide the SMME with possible solutions to minimize the gaps outline.

Loadshedding in certain parts of the country continues to be a barrier to conclude a successful virtual training programme because not all SMME’s can afford alternative power supply but in this case, the 18 SMME participants proved to overcome challenges regardless of the challenges that stood their way. The SMME participants knew that by committing to the program, they would improve their desired financial management and technical leadership skills to enhance their businesses.

This virtual flagship programme certainly provided positive tangible outcomes, coaching the SMME participants to receive investment, secure contracts, increase their revenue and create new jobs. In conclusion of the SAICA Enterprise Development 9-month virtual Flagship Programme, some of the participating SMME’s achieved the following:

·?Midi Media secured a 12-month contract with K and K media to host 20 Film and television final year students from Northwest University which received R23 000.00 funding from Craft and Design institute for equipment

· Kamva Innovations went from making a loss at the start of the programme to making an impressive R1 million a month in revenue by the end of the 9-month long programme.

·All ICT SMMEs received an Opex Investment in their business to the value of R30?000.00

During the virtual graduation event, special awards were provided to the best performing entrepreneurs which include Aarifa Ellemdeen owner of Chique Events for the highest Revenue Growth and Nkosikhona Ntsele owner of RAS Power for the highest Net profit Increase.

The overall impact of the programme was a 15% average revenue growth amongst the 18 SMME’s and the creation of 13 new jobs overall. Congratulations to the SAICA Enterprise and Supplier development Programme Manager, Neelam Diah, for her efforts to implement a successful flagship programme. A special thank you to the KPMG, FTI consultants and all our volunteer coaches for investing their time to coach our SMMEs and well done to the graduate SMME’s who showed commitment to the programme.

SAICA Enterprise Development is an entity of SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) and houses strategic Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programmes and customised projects to grow South Africa's entrepreneurial sector through advancing the sustainable growth of small Black-owned businesses.

We offer Financial Excellence to entrepreneurs through the Chartered Accountancy profession and contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal that speaks of Creating Decent Work and Economic Growth. The SAICA ED Flagship programme is specifically a virtual programme in which volunteer coaches from financial backgrounds and expertise give of their time to the development and upliftment of SMMEs across the various provinces in South Africa in their respective industries.