The City of Cape Town is calling on entrepreneurs and small business owners to sign up for its business development workshops.
Organised by the city’s Business Hub, in partnership with Digify Africa, False Bay College and city officials, the free online workshops will cover a range of issues, including tendering, costing and pricing, and business improvement strategies, says the city in a statement.
Alderman James Vos, the city’s mayoral committee member for economic growth, encourages entrepreneurs to register for the free business development workshops.
“Small and medium enterprises absorb between 50-60% of the country’s workforce and contribute 39% to the national GDP,” says Vos. “They are vital to growth, opportunity and innovation and so our support in the form of skills and information-sharing is critical.”
Even though small businesses are able to absorb more of the local workforce, data shows they continue to take strain, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and power utility Eskom’s rolling blackouts.
Government has been vocal about the need to address challenges confronting small businesses and encourage an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Vos states: “Cape Town’s start-up scene is currently worth R48.25 billion, and more and more entrepreneurs are moving from elsewhere in the country and setting up shop here because of the strong support systems the city has put in place.
“We want to make further inroads in making Cape Town a pro-growth hotspot. It is for this reason that the city government is undertaking an ease of doing business strategy, wherein we are aiming to learn what we can do to make life easier for SMEs.”
For data-free access to the virtual sessions, the city says attendees can use the SmartCape services in public libraries, or go to one of the buildings in the metro with free WiFi access.
Alternatively, they can contact the Business Hub team via e-mail at business.support@capetown.gov.za or call 021 417 4043 for business-related queries.
To sign up for the workshops, click here.
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