Western Cape Business 2018 edition

FOCUS Unlocking shared

FOCUS Unlocking shared growth for the Western Cape Absa is using sustainable business models to tackle social problems Absa’s Shared Growth strategy is focused on three interlinked themes where we believe the bank can have the greatest impact: Education and Skills, Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion. By tackling social challenges through commercial business models, the bank offers self-sustaining and scalable solutions. These solutions offer considerable advantages because they: • increase access to employment opportunities through skill building • provide access to quality education • give support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) • provide wider, more convenient access to financial services. The Shared Growth strategy is therefore focused on these interlinked themes. In implementing its Shared Growth strategy, the bank works with like-minded partners in business, government, academia and the non-profit sector. Forging strong public-private partnerships is key to creating shared value that can deliver maximum impact. Education and Skills Absa has committed to investing R1.4-billion over the next three years to support education and skills development across Africa. ReadytoWork, the bank’s employability initiative, trains young people who are setting out to find employment or create self-employment. Focusing on work, people, money and entrepreneurial skills, this free online and face-to-face training initiative provides learning material to help young people improve the soft skills needed to move from education into the world of work. Once young people have completed the curriculum, they receive a certificate of participation. In the Western Cape a number of ReadytoWork awareness programmes have taken place at Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, schools and universities, including Northlink College, South Cape College and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The purpose is to encourage students and budding entrepreneurs to register for ReadytoWork and complete the curriculum on absa.co.za/readytowork Absa, who banks 34 out of the 50 TVETs in South Africa, provided work exposure for students at TVETs in the Western Cape over a three-week period in July 2017. A total of 135 students and three lecturers spent time with 57 employees from Absa who volunteered their time. The students, mostly from areas like Khayelitsha, Vredendal, Imizamo Yethu and Manenberg, received valuable mentoring as well as presentations on Absa Bank’s products, services, and the banking laws. University Scholarships The CEO Scholarship Fund forms part of the Education and Skills Development pillar of Absa’s Shared Growth strategy through which it has undertaken to invest R1.4-billion in education and skills training between 2016 and 2018. Absa Bank has committed to an almost three-fold increase in the Barclays Africa Group’s 2017 CEO Scholarship Fund to R210-million. This will result in 3 000 university students across its 10 African markets receiving a scholarship for the current academic year. In the Western Cape, between 2016 and 2017, the allocation is more than R35-million to students from the University of the Western Cape, Cape WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018 108

FOCUS Peninsula University of Technology, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. Enterprise Development Rise: Barclays Africa Group’s fintech innovation hub in Cape Town is supporting five women entrepreneurs in the information and communications sector by providing a year-long subsidised membership to the Rise co-creation community and workspace. Four start-ups were selected for support: • 88 Business Collective: The accelerator programme headed by Antoinette Prophy is focused on emerging women entrepreneurs. • Trade Circle: Founded by Lauren Davidse, Trade Circle is developing a digital business-to-business (B2B) trading platform to modernise the supply chain of SMMEs. • Minderz: Started by Boitumelo (Tumi) Menyatswe, Minderz is an easy-to-use online platform that connects pet parents/owners with experienced, available and vetted sitters. • Girl Hype: The brainchild of Baratang Miya is an education technology (edtech)​ start-up. #YouthStart: Small and medium enterprises are essential to growing the economy across the continent. #YouthStart is a City of Cape Town programme assisted by Absa’s Business Support Development. The top 10 winners were placed in Absa’s entrepreneurship training and the financial literacy programme, and they received computer notebooks. The top three winners received seed capital to kickstart their business ideas. Cape Town Film Festival: Absa recently partnered with Wesgro and the City of Cape Town to promote Cape Town and the Western Cape Province as a film production destination. Absa has expanded on a unique partnership with China to promote South African and African productions by means of mobile movie theatres across townships. Absa Cape Epic: Absa has been the proud title sponsor of the Absa Cape Epic since 2006, and is thrilled to be part of an event that makes an impact in the lives of the teams who participate and the communities who benefit from the race. Financial Inclusion Many of the SMEs that corporates may be looking to support through procurement spend may not be able to get funding from a bank because they do not have a financial track record. Getting a loan from a bank normally requires financial records, strong balance sheets, good credit records and collateral – none of which most small businesses have. These entities then end up having to go to the informal markets to borrow at exorbitant rates, which defeats the whole purpose of building sustainable SMEs. Barclays Africa has two initiatives in this field. Firstly, we have established an innovative fund to provide lending to SMEs that are in the supply chains of our clients. This enables us to partner with our corporate clients to develop and transform their supply chains through financing. Furthermore, we recently set aside a R165-million fund to finance qualifying SMEs in our own supply chain. 109 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2018