Free State innovators have been urged to apply and take advantage of the opportunities that are presented by the Khoebo Innovation Promotion Programme, a fund to drive innovation among early-stage Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This came from the Regional Manager of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Ms Mmeme Mhlahlo. Mhlahlo made the remarks during the launch of the Khoebo Innovation Promotion Programme (KIPP) that took place at the University of Free State, Bloemfontein Campus today.

The launch was organised by the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic), in partnership with the IDC and the University of Free State.

Mhlahlo said although the KIPP has funded more than 36 projects across various sectors of the economy, with R148.2 million committed and R113.8 million disbursed to date, none of these were from the Free State. She added that Innovators should view the launch as an intervention for them to access the programme, and should therefore come forward with innovations that can be funded by both the dtic and IDC.

“This programme does not require us to think small as Free State innovators; it requires us to be disruptive and think outside the box. I am encouraging every entrepreneur to have appetite for the programme and take advantage of the opportunities the programme presents, including other incentives offered by government,” added Mhlahlo.

While reflecting on the launch, the Director of the Innovation and Technology Programmes at the dtic, Ms Takalani Ramuthaga, said the launch attracted participation by, and engagements amongst academia, business, incubators, innovators funded by the university and entrepreneurs around Bloemfontein.

“These engagements were fruitful and yielded the kind of outputs we wanted. The discussions were rich, in that they gave us a sense of desire and interest in the programme. We are looking forward to receiving more applications for the innovation programme and other programmes of the dtic. It was interesting to engage with entrepreneurs from various sectors, more especially because they asked questions about the dtic programmes as a whole, not just the Khoebo Innovation Promotion Programme,” said Ramuthaga.

The Director of Innovation and Contracts-Research Development at the UFS, Mr Tebogo Machethe, welcomed the partnership between the dtic and the IDC that resulted in the launch of the KIPP.

”UFS supports innovation and ecosystem through its Vision 130, which seeks  to shift the emphasis to research impact, embracing both knowledge and societal impact. Vision 130 identifies the need for a greater focus on collaborative research, research that is able to attract large-scale funding, and niche areas where the university is seen as a national and global leader,” noted Machete.

According to the KIPP Account Manager at the IDC, Ms Samkelisiwe Mtsewu, the programme was introduced to address the uneven distribution of economic development across the country. She noted that theh rural areas and townships were suffering a lack of development giving rise to a special need for the dtic to provide special project funds to redress the uneven distribution of economic development in townships and rural areas.

“The KIPP programme has the capacity to contribute to addressing the uneven distribution of economic development  in the country. This is due to the fact that its objective is to enable early-stage SMEs with locally developed innovative and market-ready prototypes to penetrate the market and promote a competitive economic environment and facilitate economic growth in the South African economy,” stressed Mtsewu.

For more information on Khoebo Innovation Promotion Programme https://www.idc.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IDC-KIPP-Brochure.pdf