Vodacom and the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) have launched an intensive training programme to upgrade the business skills of emerging entrepreneurs who are running Vodacom`s approximately 2 100 community phoneshops around the country.
"We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from the 200 phoneshop operators who attended the inaugural three day programmes in Gauteng and the Western Cape," said Joan Joffe, Group Executive - Corporate Affairs of Vodacom. "The result is that we now intend to run the programme annually.
"The Sekulula ("make it easy") Business Training Programme is designed to sharpen the business skills of the emerging entrepreneurs who run community phoneshops set up by Vodacom Community Services. The phoneshops generate more than 53 million calls a month and have often become focal points of communities. They have revolutionised the lives of entire communities, enabling them to become part of the formal economy, which has enormous long-term benefits for the country.
"The programme devised by the GSB focuses on small business and satisfies the requirements of the phoneshop entrepreneurs. This has an important multiplier effect in local and regional economies, since these entrepreneurs are not only self-starters but also create employment for members of their communities."
Bruce MacDonald, GSB programme director, said that the creation of small business entrepreneurship was a national priority. "Thus the Sekulula course covers the most crucial aspects of running businesses, such as business planning and communication, accounting, marketing and computer skills. These aspects will add significantly to the ability of emergent businessmen to conduct their business successfully.
"The course is modelled on the GSB`s highly successful Associate in Management Programme, which is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, and we are confident that Sekulula will have a significantly positive effect on skills growth in emerging business."
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Vodacom Community Services
Vodacom Community Services pioneered the community phone shop concept to provide subsidised community cellphones in areas with the greatest need of telephone services.
Entrepreneurs from local communities operate the cellphones on a franchise basis either from refurbished shipping containers or from their existing business premises like cafes and spaza shops. Calls are offered to the public on a cash-per-call basis at subsidised rates.
Each franchisee receives basic business training, an Absa bank account and a MasterCard optional account to facilitate payment for airtime. This is the first time that many of the operators have ever operated a bank account. The optional account allows them to build a credit profile which will enable them to upgrade to credit cards, and apply successfully for home loans and other value-added banking services.
The result is wealth creation and a stimulus for the growth of SMMEs. In addition, previously unbanked people are being brought into the formal economy.