Company Announcement - AfriSam has honoured 32 North West entrepreneurs for successfully completing its inaugural Enterprise Development Programme in the province. The EDP is an accelerated training programme for black-owned Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises to enable their inclusion in AfriSam’s database of registered vendors. The entrepreneurs who were recognised own SMMEs ranging from cleaning services to catering, IT, welding, gardening and transport services.

Training was facilitated by Motswiri Consulting & Business Skills South Africa of Itsoseng in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality, North West Province, which has run mentoring workshops since March 2014. The training focused on equipping entrepreneurs with the necessary networking and technical skills to achieve business excellence. “The success of the EDP is testament to AfriSam’s support of local economic development. By identifying and improving black-owned SMMEs, we contribute positively towards skills development and employment,” Derick Dreyer, AfriSam Dudfield General Manager, said. “We were amazed by the level of commitment from the entrepreneurs. They saw this as an opportunity to improve their skills and set high standards for themselves so that they can become world-class service providers. We are proud of all of them,” Dreyer commented.

Akanyang Mashobane, owner of AMAC Trading, expressed his gratitude to AfriSam for investing in local enterprise development. “We thank AfriSam for investing in our future by providing us with such valuable skills. These kinds of opportunities will go a long way in eradicating poverty and unemployment in our communities,” Mashobane said. To date, AfriSam’s Enterprise Development team has held SMME Campaigns and Open Days in support of local communities around AfriSam’s Lichtenburg, Roodekrans, Roodepoort and Eikenhof operations. More communities will be included as the programme is rolled-out to other provinces in the future.