Telkom and Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will enable both organisations to offer more extensive tender-related services to potential and existing black suppliers through their Tender Advice Centers (TACs).
Ntsika was established by the Department of Trade and Industry to promote small businesses, and currently has 16 TACs throughout South Africa. Another six TACs are expected to become operational in the next few months, and the collaboration between Telkom and Ntsika will see small businesses receiving more information on available tender opportunities through these centers.
The MoU includes Telkom`s sponsorship of tender bulletin boards valued at R75 000 that will be put up in all Ntsika TACs to ensure that a larger number of suppliers have access to Telkom tenders.
Through the Telkom Foundation, Telkom will also donate computers with Internet connections worth R195 000 to each center during the second phase of the project. This will give Ntsika ready access Telkom tender bulletins and other Telkom-related information.
Telkom has established a TeleTender Advice Programme that offers capacity-building services to small businesses, including comprehensive advice and training in the tendering process, tender opportunities and referrals to relevant external training courses. The synergies between Ntsika Tender Advice Centers and the Telkom TeleTender Advice Programme are included in the MoU.
These initiatives form part of Telkom`s economic empowerment programme. The Company has recognised that many black small businesses struggle to tender for Telkom work, and is overcoming this through strategic initiatives designed to make its services more accessible to black suppliers, as well as to improve their capacity to do business.
Telkom`s spending on BEE in the 1999/2000 financial year was R3 billion. Of this amount R456 million was spent on small business (SMMEs) and it was for the first time that the company spent more with them than with large black suppliers whose total spend was R435 million.
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