Views
4 years ago

Northern Cape Business 2019/20 edition

  • Text
  • Africa
  • Africa
  • Maritime
  • Tourism
  • Agri
  • Bpo
  • Education
  • Harbour
  • Sez
  • Development
  • Infrastructure
  • Investment
  • Cape
  • Industrial
  • Province
  • Sector
  • Mining
  • Upington
  • Solar
  • Renewable
Since its launch in 2009, Northern Cape Business has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to the Northern Cape Province. The 2019/20 edition is officially supported and used by the Northern Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism. Northern Cape Business is unique as a business and investment guide that focuses exclusively on the province. In addition to comprehensive overviews of sectors of the economy, this publication has a particular focus on specific, packaged investment opportunities. The massive potential represented by the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project and the rapid progress being made by Sol Plaatje University are also highlighted in this edition.

OVERVIEW Banking and

OVERVIEW Banking and finance New banks are targeting niche markets. News in 2018 that a mutual bank in Limpopo had been hollowed out by corrupt activities put the spotlight on banking practice in South Africa. Mutual banks do not offer full-service banking but focus rather on encouraging savings and providing benefits to their depositors. Despite the experience in Limpopo, the appetite for mutual banks is strong, given the nature of the South African market. The Young Women in Business Network (YWBN) intends applying for a mutual bank licence in 2019. Bank Zero will use the mutual model while other new entrants such as Timebank (free transactional accounts) and Discovery Bank (which will apply the behavioural model it uses in its health business to reward good financial behaviour) are introducing innovations. South Africa’s four big retail banks (Nedbank, Absa, Standard Bank and First National Bank) have a solid presence in the major towns in the province. Capitec is rapidly moving towards being part of a Big Five and it announced in 2018 that it would partner with Centriq Life to enter the insurance market. The established banks have specialists in the province and dedicated units such as Nedbank Agribusiness. Focus areas for this unit are agronomy (grain, oil seeds, sugar and cotton), livestock (including game farming), horticulture (fruit and vegetables, for example), and secondary agriculture which covers agricultural processing and storage. With the renewable energy sector booming in South Africa, a whole new sector in need of project funding has opened up for banks. The Northern Cape has attracted a high percentage of independent power producers which have won the right to build power plants, especially in the solar power sector. The other new sector is astronomy as represented by the Square Kilometre Array project. This will attract investments, one of the first of which is in education by Absa Bank. The bank has ONLINE RESOURCES Association for Savings and Investment South Africa: www.asisa.org.za Chartered Institute for Government Finance, Audit and Risk Officers: www.cigfaro.co.za Financial Services Board: www.fsb.co.za SECTOR INSIGHT Sol Plaatje University has received R4.5-million from Absa Bank for Data Science. given R4.5-million to Sol Plaatje University to develop the field of Data Science. The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank) is a major participant in the Northern Cape financial sector and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), as an equity investor in several businesses in strategic sectors, is another important player. Most agricultural companies in the Northern Cape have financing and services divisions, as one would expect in a province with a strong and varied agricultural sector which exports much of its produce. GWK has six units within its Corporate Services division and these mostly relate to finance: Finance, Financing, Risk Management, and Financial Agricultural Advice. In 2017 Senwes and its holding company Senwesbel became the first new stocks to be listed on the country’s new stock exchange, the ZAR X. Upington-based KLK Landbou offers insurance and medical cover while OVK has insurance and financing options. NORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019/20 60

Development finance and SMME support An industrial park at Kathu will boost SMMEs. An opportunity to move materials and do production drilling for Kumba Iron Ore has not only spurred Kele Mining Solutions, a Northern Cape SMME, to hire 150 people, it has led to the establishment of a subsidiary logistics company. Kefilwe and Jomo Khomo (pictured with some of their staff) experienced a huge increase in turnover when they teamed up with minerals giant Kumba, which has set aside R1-billion specifically for local procurement and supplier development. The company’s supplier development programme also gives advice on business practices and marketing. With a head office in Kathu, Kele is expanding to the platinum sector in Rustenburg and looking for business in Botswana. The Khomos are also doing their bit for SMME development by contracting other local businesses when they can. SMMEs will be catered for in the planned Kathu Industrial Park which is being supported by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and companies in the mining sector. The focus of the park will be metals. The park’s infrastructure will enable smaller companies to be in a position to tender for supply contracts to mines. The Industrial Development Corporation is one of the biggest funders of projects in the Northern Cape. Through the IDC’s Transformation and Entrepreneurial Scheme, a black economic empowerment project is underway at Kakamas, where emerging farmers are planting citrus. A 2018 conference on renewable energy laid out opportunities in this growing sector for interested SMMEs. The theme of the conference was “Driving economic growth and transformation through renewable energy”. A provincial local economic development (LED) forum was held with a focus on finance and commercial banking. The opportunities for small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) were explained ONLINE RESOURCES Industrial Development Corporation: www.idc.co.za Small Enterprise Development Agency: www.seda.org.za Small Enterprise Finance Agency: www.sefa.org.za SECTOR INSIGHT OVERVIEW Kumba will spend R1-billion on local suppliers and procurement. and various supplier development and training programmes were detailed. The provincial government supports small enterprises, rural enterprises and co-operatives through business and financial management training and procurement of goods from SMMEs. In partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), cadets receive training before receiving work places at various municipalities. There is a plan to create a Provincial Incubation Strategy and planners are also looking into creating a specialist Renewable Energy Incubator to support smaller entrants into that growing sector. Many programmes focus on agricultural production and food security. 61 NORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019/20

Other recent publications by Global Africa Network: