The Centre for Entrepreneurship & Rapid Incubator (CfERI), in Upington, which has as its main mandate to support and establish SMME’s located in the ZF Mgcawu Municipal District was officially incorporated into the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) on 1 June 2021. On 15 July 2022 the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University, Professor Andrew Crouch, and the senior management of SPU together with key stakeholders of CfERI celebrated the first year of its incorporation.
Advocate Anthony Mac Minn, Centre Manager for CfERI presented the future plans of the CfERI and Professor Crouch talked about how the University will assist to improve the quality of CfERI’s service offerings throughout the district.
In partnership with various stakeholders in the district such as the Dawid Kruiper Municipality’s Economic Development office, the Karos Solar One, MLAB and the Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, CfERI will engage within the communities to empower the SMME’s with business management skills and access to funding.
The CfERI, the brainchild of the Department of Small Business Development and the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), was launched in 2017 to support, mentor, and train small business in the district and to create more job opportunities amongst unemployed youth, people with disabilities and women. The CfERI moved from the Vaal University of Technology to Sol Plaatje University in 2021 to improve their capacity to implement their mandate and to expand the footprint of the University in the region.
