Under its Faranani Rural Women Training Initiative, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has provided business and entrepreneurial skills to 25 rural women, who have been awarded with their certificates at a graduation ceremony following the completion of the course.

Annually, PwC builds the skills of approximately 100 underprivileged women nationally through the Business Skills for South Africa (BSSA) Foundation as it continues to add to the sustainable social and economic development of rural areas across South Africa.

This brings to date more than 30 000 entrepreneurs who have been trained under the Foundation, which was established by PwC in collaboration with the National Industrial Chamber in 1992, to provide business and entrepreneurial skills to previously disadvantaged communities in order to create jobs and increase wealth.

In 2006, PwC extended the initiative to include rural women in business through the Faranani Rural Women Training Initiative.

“For years, PwC has strived to uplift communities through education and skills transfer, but our firm has learnt that this programme truly empowers people to empower others: we have found that on completion of this course, women return to their homes and pass on the valuable skills they have gained by teaching their families and friends financial and business management,” says Shirley Machaba, a partner at PwC.

This level of skills transfer supports the government’s job creation efforts and aligns with the state’s goals to reduce unemployment through entrepreneurship initiatives.

Furthermore, developing the entrepreneurial and business skills of women in South Africa is supported by the South African Government, and PwC does this through close collaboration with the MEC of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza.

Faranani aims to nurture women who have a desire to become business owners, by providing them with the knowledge to start and actively manage their own business.

Over five days, women are taught how to develop a complete business plan, which is supported by cash flow and profit forecasts and the respective financial projections.

Furthermore, the ladies are given the skills to develop a marketing plan and understand the general business management that is required to run a successful business.

This is then followed by a counselling session where the students address any challenges experienced after implementing what they have learnt, and receive valuable feedback to address and overcome these issues.

“They truly get the full experience of understanding four modules taught at the BSSA, namely practical marketing, effective financial management, practical pricing and costing, and business management,” says Machaba.

“Not only do they learn how to put a business plan together and use it as a management tool, but they also learn how to manage their daily finances and use marketing to further promote their current businesses.”

The women selected for the course must be literate enough to undergo the training. Potential candidates have the unique opportunity to change their status from mere survival to that of a successful small or medium-sized business owner or employee.

Already, local municipalities such as Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg and Lephalale/Ellisras have taken an active role and increased their involvement with Faranani to recruit people from the initiative.

“We are excited about the positive developments that have come, and will continue to come, from the Faranani Rural Women Training Initiative,” says Machaba. “On completion of the training, participants will not only be visited by a BSSA business adviser to help them with implementation of what they learnt, in addition these participants will be linked to the dti [Department of Trade and Industry] programme called the Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP).”

The BBSDP assists black businesses in acquiring machinery used for production, accessing business development services such as marketing materials, website development and further skills development. This is achieved through a cost-sharing ratio.

“Therefore, if a business requires a machine worth R200 000, the dti will contribute R160 000 as a grant while the businessperson will have to come up with the R40 000,” explains Machaba.

The dti grant is open to any black business that has the potential to grow.

BSSA will assist the participants of Faranani in accessing the grant by linking them with the department and the relative network facilitators.

In conclusion, Machaba says that: “Price-waterhouseCoopers would like to wish these women the greatest success as they venture out into the business world with their newly acquired skills, to create a better life for themselves and their communities.”

Shirley Machaba