July 21, 2006
By Anish Abraham
A DAY of celebration is on the cards for over 450 informal traders from in and around Johannesburg, as they attend their certification ceremony at the University of the Witwatersrand on 22 July.
Saturday's certification ceremony will take at the Wits Great Hall at 2pm.
The traders are the second group to benefit from the 14-week Grow Your Business Programme, developed by Wits Enterprise for the City of Johannesburg's Economic Development Unit (EDU).
The unit has identified informal traders as a critical area to be developed as part of the City's Joburg 2030 long-term strategy.
According to Lavelle Nomdo, a project consultant for skills development at the unit, the EDU and the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), responsible for ranks and informal trading in the City, chose the participating traders.
"The MTC provided us with information on traders that they had on their lists, while others were nominated to attend the course by the Randburg Traders Association," she said.
Together with the first graduation in July 2005, over 1 000 traders have now been trained in basic business fundamentals.
Some of the traders on the Grow Your Business course at Wits University
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
These include developing business plans, budgeting and basic financial management, pricing, marketing, ensuring growth, sustaining a small business, legislative imperatives on small businesses, metro legislative requirements, sourcing financing and networking.
Each participant had to attend at least one three-hour session per week, for the entire duration of the Grow Your Business Programme.
"Mentoring was done by students under guidance from academics and comprised visits to the actual business sites, group meetings, networking and funding advice," said Dr Johann Swanepoel from Wits Enterprise.
Included in the programme was a pilot project which saw a group of 50 Early Childhood Development (ECD) Site Managers receiving training, supported by the EDU.
Nomdo said the 50 already own or manage crèches, and they were being given additional managing and business skills to ensure the sustained viability of their crèches. They will also be awarded with certificates.
Their training included critical aspects such as compliance with relevant legislation, the roles of various government departments and labour relations issues.
The Curriculum Development Project Trust and the Students in Free Enterprise also assisted the ECD programme, with fundraising skills and training facilitators respectively.
The City is also looking at entering into a joint venture with the Wholesale and Retail Seta (the sector education and training authority) to train the certified traders further in a one-on-one mentorship programme.
"They are willing to provide R1,2-million to have the 450 traders participate in the mentorship programme, though the final agreement between them and the City is still pending," Nomdo said.
In the meantime, the EDU and the MTC will start identifying traders to take part in the next batch of the Grow Your Business Programme in September.
To attend the certificate ceremony or for more information, contact Dr Johann Swanepoel on 011 717 4595 or 083 310 1663 or email johan.swanepoel@wits.ac.za.
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