DHL Express launching Growing Beyond Borders programme in Sub Saharan Africa

DHL Express has announced that it will be launching its Growing Beyond Borders entrepreneurial training programme in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) in the coming weeks. The programme specifically designed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) understand the economic potential of international trade and the subsequent benefits to their businesses.

The company will be launching the program in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Mauritius in October 2015, followed shortly by South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Uganda.

Thereafter, the programme will be expanded to a further 16 markets across SSA before the end of the first quarter of 2016.

Hennie Heymans, the recently-appointed Managing Director for DHL Express SSA, said that as Sub Saharan Africa continues to emerge as a growth market, so will the continent’s attractiveness for business expansion.

He added that the stable GDP forecasts for the Sub Saharan Africa region (4.6% in 2016 and 5% 2017(1), coupled with a booming e-commerce sector will create significant opportunities for innovative SMEs to service online-savvy customers.

“For example, in South Africa alone,” said Heymans, “the demand for online retail is growing rapidly, with significant opportunities existing to create cross-border e-commerce partnerships throughout Africa.”

However, continued Heymans, while local entrepreneurs are identifying expansion and growth opportunities across Africa, many simply do not have the know-how to capitalise on these.

The free of charge Growing Beyond Borders workshop model will explore importing and exporting in new markets, provides guidance on how to find key geographical opportunities for the business’ specific products and services, as well as how to identify different marketing avenues and ways to build long-term relationships with their target customers for long term success.