By Nikolas Archontis
Building on the success of the Global Business Accelerator project (2015-2018), E4D has launched the Global Export Accelerator Project (GEAP), aiming to stimulate job creation and income generation by building capacities of local enterprises to export their products or services.
E4D has teamed up with four Chambers of Business and Commerce (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, and Pietermaritzburg), which along with the South African Supplier Diversity Council (SASDC), to foster training, market linkages and export support for local enterprises (51% Black-owned).
So what’s GEAP? For most of us “jeep” is a synonym of a rugged-terrain, all purpose, off-road vehicle. Fewer might know that the term is U.S. military slang for “new recruits”. Fast forward some decades, a new kind of GEAP, the Global Export Accelerator Programme, takes on a road less travelled in RSA: the road of exports. According to the South African Government’s National Development Plan (NDP), small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), currently absorb about 60% of the employed population but contribute less than 4% of export earnings.
Powered by GIZ, driven by local Chambers of Business and Commerce, with SASDC at the co-driver’s/navigators seat, GEAP aims to support new export-“recruits” getting their products and services to the global market. Currently, the four partnering Chambers of Business and Commerce (CCCI, JCCI, NMBBC, PMCB) have -mostly- completed the training sessions, while experts and mentors are guiding the participating SMMEs on their export journey.
But as Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “It’s not the destination. It’s the journey”. And hopefully the GEAP’s road trip, will be the beginning of a beautiful… partnership; increasing the reach and impact of the four participating Chambers and improving the export ecosystem to enable easier access to international markets for all South African enterprises.
