Reporting to Society 2018 - Developing economic opportunities with fintech entrepreneurs in africa

Incubators and training

Standard Bank incubators provide small businesses with working space, capacity building and business development support services, access to mentoring and coaching, access to market opportunities in the Standard Bank value chain and the value chains of our business and commercial clients, and access to finance, either directly from the bank, or with the bank acting as a facilitator.

We have incubators in Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa, and an entrepreneurship centre in Nigeria, together supporting approximately 12 000 entrepreneurs.

Stanbic Bank Ghana’s Business Incubator was launched in January 2018. It aims to provide funding and support to 1 500 SMEs. It targets businesses that have been operating for less than three years. Areas of support include helping SMEs to differentiate themselves, helping them grow their profitability and helping them to access corporate supply chains.

In 2018 we:

Partnered with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to support the Women Entrepreneurship One Roundtable Programme, which aims to improve business management, benefiting 200 women business owners

Doreen Kweiba Iliasu

HEAD: LEGAL, STANBIC BANK GHANA

“We came up with this initiative in recognition of the struggles faced by women entrepreneurs and the need to help them overcome the challenges and succeed. From Stanbic we have two messages for you: the first, for women, we say Stanbic Bank is here to help you move forward; the second, which is to everyone, we emphasise that advancing women is good for business, good for society and great for Africa’s prospects.”

87
people received mentorship

over
900
women directly impacted

1 870
youth impacted

620
people impacted from networking events

32
training programmes

4
access to finance master classes

Standard Bank Mozambique’s Incubator was launched in August 2017. It focuses on youth employment, female economic empowerment and local content development.

In 2018 we:

Hosted over 3 000 entrepreneurs at a range of events, partnering with organisations such as the World Bank, Facebook, Seedstars Maputo and Seedstars Africa, Startup Grind powered by Google, Shell and local municipalities
Trained over 500 entrepreneurs in areas such as entrepreneurship, insurance, angel investment, tech skills and access to funding
Partnered with Lionesses of Africa and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to host six events reaching 660 women
Sponsored 250 women to participate in Start-up Girl, an entrepreneurship and leadership programme for young women between 15 and 26 years old
Launched our flagship boot camp programme, #iDeate, in partnership with Idealab, hosting three boot camps for 126 participants, just under half of whom were women
Signed agreements with Shell and ENI Rovuma Basin, which will see Standard Bank partnering with these companies to assist Mozambican small enterprises in accessing enterprise development programmes and developing their capacity to participate in corporate value chains, in the oil and gas sector
Won the Southern Africa Start-up Award for Best Incubator/Accelerator Programme in Mozambique in 2018

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In Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC has partnered with the Kaduna State government to establish the IBTC Entrepreneurship Centre (KADSEC). The centre serves as an incubator to nurture entrepreneurs and SMEs. Services include capacity building programmes, mentorship, on-site business management counselling, market development assistance, networking opportunities, export assistance, and access to loans from Stanbic IBTC Bank. The Kaduna Tech Accelerator programme, a start-up ecosystem for tech entrepreneurs, and the Agro-business Incubation programme, will also be run from the centre. In addition, Stanbic IBTC organises annual enterprise workshops in cities across Nigeria. The workshops provide participants with marketing, financial and management skills. In 2018, over 8 000 business owners participated in the workshops.

Standard Bank South Africa has run a variety of successful training programmes and events through our dedicated Small Enterprise Incubators. Going forward, we will focus on reaching a larger number of enterprises through incubation initiatives that won’t necessarily be tied to a specific place.

We collaborated with the Institute for Health Professionals and the Alliance of South African Independent Practitioners Association to sponsor a series of seminars to capacitate medical professionals to run their practices more efficiently. The courses were delivered free of charge and covered a range of topical issues, including the impact of regulatory change on the sector. Interactive seminars were delivered in four locations around the country, reaching 68 delegates. All four events were considered a success, with positive feedback from both delegates and bankers.
Standard Bank South Africa sponsored the 5th Annual Green Youth Indaba, an event which brings together industry experts and young people to expose participants to career and entrepreneurial opportunities within the green economy. The indaba attracted more than 600 young people. The Green Innovator 5.0 pitch saw 10 entrepreneurs selected to pitch their businesses to a panel of adjudicators, which included Standard Bank. The top three – Nubrix, which manufactures bricks from recycled paper; Palesa pads, which manufactures reusable sanitary pads that last for five years; and Cubic 38, which produces low-cost shoe polish using old waste tyres – won seed capital to grow their businesses.
Our 2018 My Fearless Next campaign helped young entrepreneurs take their ventures from part-time sidelines to fully fledged businesses. 36 entrepreneurs competed, pitching their businesses and testing their growth potential during one-day boot camps. The competition winner, Nonhlanhla Mthethwa from Pietermaritzburg, received R1 million to cover her salary for a year, together with mentorship from Standard Bank’s Entrepreneur Development Programme. The other finalists also received cash prizes to assist them with their entrepreneurial goals.

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Related articles: Enterprise development.
Also see the section on empowerment financing and enterprise development.

Developing economic opportunities with fintech entrepreneurs in Africa

The financial services industry is evolving in response to changing client behaviour, increased expectations, channel proliferation and the adoption of new technologies. Ongoing digitisation improves ease of access and convenience for customers, while boosting process efficiency, mitigating risk, reducing costs and increasing competition. Staying true to our African journey, Standard Bank is working to support and develop Africa’s fintech entrepreneurs, recognising their potential as future partners in our business.

We established the Standard Bank Moonshots division in 2017, with the objective of starting new businesses for Standard Bank which focus on creating jobs across Africa while generating material new revenue streams for the bank. The team develops its own ideas and partners with innovative local and international businesses to solve complex challenges faced by our clients. Current initiatives include disruptive new technology platforms and solutions to drive trade in Africa, and a product which solves industry-wide challenges in business lending. We’ve also invested in Founders Factory Africa to build and grow 100 disruptive tech companies across Africa in the next five years. Through these initiatives, Moonshots will provide new innovative services and products to our clients across Africa, while simultaneously generating revenues for the bank.

In Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Bank’s Innovation Challenge aims to leverage digital technology, innovation and expertise outside traditional financial service providers, to improve service offerings and delivery for our customers. It’s open to technology start-ups and product development teams across Nigeria. 2018’s winner was Yochaa, a start-up with a stockbroking mobile platform. Yochaa received USD12 500 and workspace in the Stanbic IBTC Blue Lab, with access to IT infrastructure for testing and development.

Dr Demola Sogunle

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, STANBIC IBTC BANK PLC

“We believe that technology holds the key to enhancing certain operations within our business, principal of which is making our card issuance and delivery system more seamless and cost-efficient for the banking subsidiary. The three finalists, Yochaa, Flutterwave and Venture Garden Group, have created life-enhancing applications, all of which have the potential to improve efficiency, simplicity, and robustness in delivering the right customer experience.”

In South Africa, we sponsored 20 start-ups and SMEs in the information and communications technologies (ICT) sector to showcase their businesses at ITU Telecom World, an annual event organised by the UN, which brings together digital start-ups and SMEs, governments, regulators, industry leaders and experts from around the world. We provided them with training and financial support in preparation for the event, and ongoing mentoring for six months following the event. Three of the four ITU category awards, which are independently adjudicated by a global panel, were awarded to SMEs from the Standard Bank pavilion, including the overall ITU SME category winner, Pulego Communications.

We also had five cash prize-winners for the Standard Bank SME award for innovation, fourth industrial revolution capability, and taking South African entrepreneurs to the ‘next level’.

R400 000 – A2D24
R300 000 – Tuse Applications
R200 000 – Empty Trips
R100 000 – Litabe Technologies (tie fourth place)
R100 000 – Senso (tie fourth place)

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