Sustainability for South Africa's economy through collaborative enterprise development within the energy space

At Saica Enterprise Development (Saica ED) we do specialised work within the energy space empowering small businesses to not only be sustainable but to grow. We believe in the synergy of collaborative partnerships to create elative and meaningful impact to fuel our economy. We are so proud to be heading into our 6^th Energy Sector-focused programme this year, with a brand-new intake of eight candidates. This year’s 12-month project has a core focus on SMME’s from the Petroleum and Solar space, and other Energy-related industries too.

Saica ED forms part of the Learning and Development Division under the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) and one of our key projects, the EneGro project which plays an active role within the energy space, with a purpose to see transformation and growth.

“The way forward in terms of tangible economic impact and transformation relating to our beautiful country’s sustainable future is to have a cohesive collaborative approach for the development of Small South African Businesses. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) business development and monitoring, with the real intention and heart of the matter being to create lasting impact. The EneGro project in partnership with Dedisa Peaking Power and other key industry players, continues to transform the sector and bring about such impact. As such it is with expectation that Saica ED looks to other industry stakeholders to take up the baton and partner with us,” comments Saica ED Customised Project Manager Darren Ryder.

This programme was only made possible through our strategic partnership with Avon and Dedisa Peaking Power, South Africa’s first large privately owned power generating plants initiated by the Department of Energy, who we have had a long-lasting relationship with for the past 6 years.

“The aim of investing in Enterprise and Supplier Development is to promote economic transformation to enable meaningful participation of Black businesses in the mainstream economy. Dedisa Peaking Power embarked on this initiative to develop entrepreneurs. And so far this project continues to be one of great significance,” says Ajay Brijmohan COO, Avon and Dedisa Peaking Power.

More about the EneGro Project

The project was launched in 2017 as an Enterprise and Supplier Development Small Business Programme, aptly named ‘EneGro’, meaning Energy Growth. To date the purpose of the programme was to help equip SMMEs with business development and Financial Excellence, personal leadership, and energy industry expertise in support of economic growth and transformation in the Energy sector in SA.

The programme itself is tailor-made to empower and equip the SMME owners with financial and industry related expertise. To date, the past five EneGro projects has supported 30 SMMEs.

Impact success over 2020 and 2021

In terms of job creation, the last two EneGro projects combined resulted in an incredible 46 jobs being created, a combination of internships, learnerships as well as full-time posts though the SMME’s on the programme.

We have also seen steady increasing growth in a variety of key indicator areas including Sales and Profit, Business Processes, Compliance, Strategic Planning, HR Processes, Quality of product and service, IT systems and Financial Processes.

We were very proud to say that all the SMMEs from those two projects have a business model canvas in place and a detailed business plan. The 16 SMMEs were also able to receive support from business and industry experts and services were secured in multiple areas in terms of Industry and business support at no extra cost to Dedisa Peaking Power.

Furthermore, some noteworthy individual milestones to mention:

Noteworthy individual milestones to mention include:

• Devaksha Maharaj, owner of Ikigai Engineering, has been selected too be part of the Council board of the Energy Sector Gender Ministerial Advisory Council, this team will report on national sectoral and implementation progress of the Energy Sector for Woman Empowerment and Gender Equality. Further she came Top 8 of the Santam Woman of the Future Awards and has created employment opportunities for 10 interns.
• Abdul Esakjee, owner of AEGM Solutions has purchased land in order to set up his renewable fuels manufacturing plant.
• Sandiswa Qayi, owner of AET AFRICA, was selected for the Korea global entrepreneurs programme – being recognised as on of the top 12 start-ups in South Africa.
• Silcelo Mthombeni, owner of Dumaliwe, was selected for the Total Energies Challenge – startup of the year for his AgriVoltaics project in KZN.
• And Thembani Marhanele, owner of Jeka Resources, has expanded his company into other countries in Africa and has 340MW of Solar PV projects either with signed PPA’s, or currently in the process of signing.

We asked Sandiswa, to share what her experience on the project from 2021 and here is what she had to say:

“For me the programme helped me to understand my business better and equipped me as the leader to take strategic and sound decisions. The personal coaching programme and help from mentors helped me to build my confidence as a leader,” says Sandiswa Qayi.

We have successfully kicked off the EneGro 6 project this month and look forward to some high impact results from our new eight SMMEs.

Saica ED

Saica Enterprise Development aims to grow South Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem through advancing the sustainable growth of small Black businesses, which in turn will create employment opportunities. Partner with us for all your Enterprise and Supplier Development scorecard needs, we have a relevant and meaningful solution for you.

Visit: www.saica.co.za/enterprisedevelopment

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Saica ED Media Contact: Kellys@thehopefactory.co.za