Big-prize Innovation Award winners announced
This year's winner is the community gardening product, Garden in a Box, which receives an investment of R1 million. Two runners-up, ShonaQuip and The Invoice Exchange, received R500,000 each
Cyril RamaphosaThird place is shared by Arivi Paraffin Stove and Drybath whose innovations each receive R150.000 and fourth place is shared by Lifeplayer MP3 and Micromune, who each get R100,000
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The South African Breweries (SAB) Foundation has announced the winners of its inaugural Innovation Awards at a ceremony in Sandton.
The event was hosted by SAB Foundation Chairman and SA businessman, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The awards were established "to recognise unique product inventions which work to improve the lives of women, youth, persons with disabilities and persons in rural areas".
This is part of the SAB Foundation’s primary focus which is to ignite a culture of entrepreneurship in South Africa as a source of economic growth, job creation and innovation, the company said in a statement.
The awards are the first significant initiative announced by the SAB Foundation which was founded in 2009 as part of SAB’s broad based black economic empowerment deal, SAB Zenzele. The SAB Foundation holds 8.4 million SAB shares and uses the dividend income from these shares to invest in initiatives which benefit the wider community.
The winner of the inaugural SAB Foundation Innovation Awards 2011 is Reel Gardening, whose community gardening product, Garden in a Box, receives an investment of R1 million. The SAB Foundation will invest in six or more production machines to increase capacity, raw materials, staff and a distribution vehicle in order to take Garden in a Box to designated rural schools and communities.
Reel Gardening is owned by 25-year-old Claire Reid, who created a handmade vegetable planting strip made from biodegradable paper.
Each vegetable strip is water soluble, contains fertiliser and non-modified seeds and includes a set of seed growing factors to maximise the germination rate.
Reid created the simplistic yet revolutionary product when she was only 16.
"Nine years later, Reel Gardening has grown into a fully fledged business marketing its products to retail and corporate clients.
"But at the heart of her business is its support of community based gardens throughout South Africa. Reid has a developed Garden in a Box for schools and communities in low income areas. This helps to address food security concerns and provides a sustainable income for the communities growing the garden."
Two runners-up, ShonaQuip and The Invoice Exchange, received R500,000 each.
ShonaQuip designs and manufactures innovative modular wheelchairs and seating support for people living with mobility disabilities in under-resourced areas, including rural and informal settlements.
"The SAB Foundation investment will assist ShonaQuip to redesign and manufacture a more conveniently packed, modular support wheelchair so that more people are reached at a lower cost to the beneficiaries."
The Invoice Exchange is a web-based company supporting and enabling small and medium sized enterprises, who supply blue-chip companies, to access working capital immediately by selling their invoices on an exchange and receiving payment within 24 hours rather than the standard “30-days plus” invoice.
This will allow SMEs to provide more goods and services and employ additional people.
The SAB Foundation will invest IT systems and the cost involved in taking the system to market.
Third place is shared by Arivi Paraffin Stove and Drybath whose innovations each receive R150.000 and fourth place is shared by Lifeplayer MP3 and Micromune, who each get R100,000.
- Seed grants of R100 000 each were also awarded to FoodPods, MoveeCom Mobile Internet Café, Harvest of Hope — Abalimi Bezekhaya, Mthatha Agricultural Airport Services (MAAS) and Notetaker.
The long-term vision underpinning the SAB Foundation’s programmes is to ignite a culture of entrepreneurship in South Africa as a source of economic growth, job creation and innovation.
"SAB’s empowerment deal benefits those who most need and deserve it. It is a truly broad-based approach, it is inclusive and reflects the company’s longstanding and ongoing commitment to socio-economic growth, job creation and innovation. The SAB Foundation sought to benefit the most vulnerable members of society, and we believe we are on the road to achieving that aim,” said Dr Vincent Maphai, SAB Executive Director Corporate Affairs and Transformation.
Research conducted into entrepreneurship highlighted three critical points:
* SA lacks a critical mass of SMEs,
* SA has only a few high-profile entrepreneurial role models; and
* The country’s culture of innovation is largely untapped and un-commercialised.
"To address these challenges, the SAB Foundation aims to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship by supporting the growth of a critical mass of SMEs; developing entrepreneurial role models; and stimulating and rewarding innovation."
Other than the Innovation Prize, the SAB Foundation also provides these investment initiatives:
Grant Capital Investment: support and financial assistance to high-impact, black-owned businesses in partnership with Endeavour, a non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming emerging markets by establishing high-impact entrepreneurship as a leading force for sustainable economic development.
Benevolent private-equity capital investment: investing SMEs with high potential, in a combination of debt and equity depending on the businesses’ needs. The business need to be black-owned and managed, show potential to innovate and to grow or be scalable.
Business support fund: small-scale grassroots support for non-profits, co-operatives, micro-businesses and other ventures which invest in entrepreneurial development and provide income generation and employment. The focus is on co-operatives, rural, women-owned, and youth-owned enterprises.
Background - SAB’s history of supporting Entrepreneurship Development:
- SAB embarked on an aggressive black economic empowerment campaign during the 1980s in an effort to place a considerable portion of its business with black suppliers
- In the 2010 financial year, the value of goods and services procured from over 5000 empowered businesses grew to more than R8 billion, more than 53% of total local procurement
- SAB procures goods and services from 890 black-owned suppliers, 170 black women-owned suppliers, 3,168 micro enterprises and 415 small enterprises
- SAB procures from 566 suppliers that it supports via enterprise development initiatives.
- SAB KickStart youth entrepreneurship programme is currently in its 16th year, having supported over 23 000 youth and established some 3,200 businesses
- Key Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment projects that contribute towards a strong supplier base for preferential procurement include the owner-driver and distributor operator programme, as well as the Taung barley farmers programme.
KeRataBasadi
Hela monna Ramaphosa a o ke o age sekolo kapa yona creche, kanti tshelete ya di BEE mosebetsi wa yona ke eng, could someone explain pila pila di recipients tsa BEE le mosula wa sona smokolo se, ene eli eng haibe re tlo sheba banna ba hulu ba hlafuna zaga, re be re kwalwa kantle rona batsha.Report Abuse