19 Dec 2016

Kgalagadi District Council (KDC has been urged to be innovative and find ways to generate profits to be financially sustainable.

Addressing councilors during a full council session in Hukuntsi  on Wednesday (December 14), Citizen Entrepreneurship Development Agency (CEDA) chief executive officer, Mr Thabo Thamane highlighted that local authorities needed to not only be dependent on government funds, but also establish income revenue generating ventures that would create new jobs for communities.

He said there were numerous untapped business opportunities that the local authorities could venture into while at the same time providing a service to the community, hence it was imperative for local authorities to inject a healthy dose of innovation and entrepreneurship.

He noted that CEDA has developed products and services such as equity financing which could be of great benefit to assist councils in their entrepreneurship endeavors.

“CEDA is committed to support business development through various funding mechanisms, thereby promoting citizen economic empowerment and entrepreneurship,” he said.

Mr Thamane further pleaded with the council to support CEDA financed businesses through procuring from locally funded businesses where possible.

In essence, he said CEDA was bound to contribute, in no small measures, towards government continued efforts to develop, nurture and sustain such critical sectors of the economy such as manufacturing, tourism and hospitality as well as agriculture, therefore emphasised the need to procure from locals.

He said it was disturbing to note that the country’s import bill remained high while on the other hand CEDA was primarily mandated to support development of SMMEs’ through debt and equity financing as well as provision of relevant training and mentoring services that enable capacity building.

Furthermore, Mr Thamane highlighted that in an effort to take CEDA services to all citizenry regardless of their localities; his agency has procured mobile office that would reach out to communities that did not have access to CEDA offices.

He said the mobile offices were pivotal in reaching out to all aspiring and already existing entrepreneurs and give them an opportunity to engage with various entities on issues pertaining to business success.

His agency, he said would continue to reach out and render its services to all communities through open days which were geared towards exposing CEDA policies particularly in areas where CEDA offices were none existence.

Mr Thamane however expressed concern over the low turnout of funding application in Kgalagadi, indicating that the agency has since inception financed only 138 projects to the value of over P87 million in Kgalagadi.

The bulk of the funding, he said was towards agribusiness projects, hence pleaded with councillors to advise their electorates to sort out other business opportunities rather than focus on livestock farming projects only. ENDS