South African Post Office and FIPA enter development programme
The Free State Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) has entered into an agreement with the South African Post Office to establish an SMME development programme for entrepreneurs in the logistics sector. The agreement will see the development of capacity in the province to roll out TV set-top boxes and to speed up the roll-out of the national address database in the province.
The Post Office has developed an SMME development programme to support small companies that provide them with services. Meant to create sustainable market opportunities for their SMME suppliers, the programme also improves the quality of service that the Post Office gets from these SMME’s.
In the Free State, the SMME’s will receive financial and non-financial support from FIPA and gain access to markets and technical support from the Post Office.
The Post Office is extending the national address database with the aim to provide all South African households with postal addresses. In the Free State Province, the initiative will be integrated with the television set-top-box manufacturing and distribution programme to speed up the roll-out of the database.
“The cooperation between the Post Office and FIPA will promote economic development in the Free State considerably,” said Malesela Sekhasimbe, group executive: Supply Chain Management at the Post Office. “All our broad-based black economic empowerment purchasing is done from local suppliers.”
The province also plans to train over 6 000 entrepreneurs to become certified installers and distributors of set-top-boxes in the province. The province also has plans to use the data from the national address database in developing ICT applications for government services and postal services which also mean market opportunities for Free State ICT SMMEs.
“The benefits from this partnership will include creation of sustainable jobs in the province, SMME development, creation of new industries such as set-top-box manufacturing and distribution and enhancement of an emerging ICT sector in the province,” said Gcina Mazibuko, CEO of FIPA.
