Imagine the joy of reaping the first fruit of your labour.
This is the feeling that Ford South Africa must be having, having seen the first graduate of its Incubation Centre opening a new vehicle personalisation centre near Ford Silverton assembly.
Caiphus Mokotedi’s Zig Enterprises has been awarded the tender for Ford’s new vehicle personalisation centre. The facility will give South African-built Ford Ranger customers the opportunity to equip their vehicles at factory level to suit specific needs and requirements.
Mokotedi says he is greatly indebted to Ford Incubation Centre for the immense opportunity.
“This project has been an extremely valuable stepping stone for me and I am very grateful for the opportunity that the AIDC and Ford have given me through the incubation programme. The training and support have given me the solid grounding to start up my own new business, which will now become an integral part of Ford’s manufacturing operations.”
Jeff Nemeth, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company of Sub-Saharan Africa, says Ford is delighted that its Ford Incubation Centre initiative is making a huge difference to the development of the small business sector and, most importantly, broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE).
“The incubation programme is focused on enterprise development support to empower SMMEs to run sound and sustainable businesses through structured training and mentoring programmes aimed at giving the entrepreneurs the required technical and business acumen skills. We are delighted that we’ve been able to make this possible with our new enterprise development partner and incubation programme graduate, as we focus on small enterprise development and broad-based black economic empowerment,” he says.
The incubation programme was established by the Gauteng provincial government, in conjunction with the Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC), a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), an entity owned by the provincial government’s Department of Economic Development. Its aim is to provide manufacturing opportunities for small and medium enterprises to enter the automotive industry.
