Funding provided to one of the City’s Strategic Business Partners (SBP), the Cape Innovation Technology Initiative (CiTi), resulted in an impressive return on investment. In the 2019/20 financial year, in that CiTi facilitated the training of 1217 people, hosted 210 industry events attended by 4 868 people and facilitated 581 direct jobs and 602 internships.
The Enterprise and Investment department (E&I) leads the City’s mission to position Cape Town as an international business city that competes with other premier business destinations across the globe. The department works with a range of internal and external stakeholders to achieve this vision.
The City of Cape Town provides funding and strategic guidance to SBPs in order help create an enabling business environment, promote investment and trade, provide skills development as well as job creation in Cape Town’s priority sectors, through sector specific interventions.
One of these SBPs is CiTi which was established in 1999 and is Africa’s oldest tech incubator. CiTi brings together business, government and society to utilise innovation and technology in order to create a future-fit inclusive society. This strategic role has resulted in catalysing and supporting the tech ecosystem in Cape Town which has ultimately been recognised as the most advanced and productive ICT ecosystem on the African continent.
Last week, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, Alderman James Vos had the privilege of visiting one of CiTi’s alumni, Skywalk Innovations. This impressive company is a tech hub and software engineering firm focused on digital transformation to solve business problems, unlock new potential revenue models or drive down inefficiencies in business processes.
‘Since 2015, Skywalk Innovations has received valuable mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and mentors as well as funding that assisted them to purchase resources they needed. The company was also given access to office space at CiTi’s Woodstock Exchange for six months as well as access to events for networking purposes. Skywalk Innovations is currently involved in another programme with CiTi to navigate through the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic and already received grant funding to replace outdated equipment.
‘Cape Town is Africa’s Information Technology hub with more tech start-ups than anywhere else on the continent. The ICT sector is an enabler of many other sectors with huge potential globally. It contributes significantly to the provision of business opportunities to Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs), the competitiveness of Cape Town being a knowledge economy, promotion of entrepreneurial activity and job creation for young talented people.
‘It also supports the development of other sectors through training and supplying skilled employees, as well as mentoring, networking and taking the industry forward through technology and innovation, thus allowing us to compete internationally.
‘The City of Cape Town’s economic recovery plan will be underpinned by the ICT sector, among others, as this sector is considered a foundation of modern economies. That is why the City of Cape Town will continue to support the ICT industry as it plays a critical role in positioning Cape Town as leading global innovation and knowledge hub,’ said Alderman Vos.