This year marks the 9th annual edition of the Proudly South African Buy Local Summit & Expo, incorporating the Business Solutions Hub.
Proudly South African is the country’s official buy local advocacy campaign and is a membership-based organisation.

The Buy Local Summit & Expo is one of the key value propositions offered to members at no additional cost over and above their membership fees (which start at R500 per annum for SMMEs with an annual turnover under R5million, rising to a maximum of R100 000 for top tier membership).

The Summit is free to attend as a delegate and offers presentations and panel discussions from which entrepreneurs and supply chain professionals can find many take away tips and pointers to implement in their own enterprises.

Day 1:

The first day of the Summit focuses on SMMEs and is presented with strategic partners the Department of Small Business Development. This year includes presentations by sponsors CocaCola Beverages SA, SA Breweries, UIF, merSETA, BAT and Mango on opportunities within their Enterprise and Supplier Development programmes.

Both the B-BBEE Commission and UIF will speak on BBEE scorecards that drive localisation and on layoff training programmes respectively and branding guru, Karin du Chenne will address delegates on striking the correct balance between price and value of your product or service.

And adding a little light relief, comedian Loyiso Madinga will do a set entitled Running your own business – no laughing matter, because honestly, it isn’t! To end off the day, three entrepreneurs will join in a panel discussion on the good, the bad and the ugly of their respective business journeys.

Day 2:

The theme of the second day of the Summit is Local procurement – averting a deeper unemployment crisis and will feature presentations on the drive towards and importance of increasing levels of local procurement by government, the private sector and by consumers.

The final session of the day will be a panel discussion between six of SA’s favourite personalities who have each created a product and a brand outside of their stardom, creating jobs in the process.

The personalities are JSomething, Gareth Cliff, Minnie Dlamini, Bokang Montjane-Tshabalala, Bonang Matheba and Maps Maponyane. The panel will be humorous but with a serious message on buying local.

The Expo has transitioned from a one-day affair to a 2-day marketplace where buyers and sellers come to source high quality, locally made products and services. This is possibly the single best showcase in the country exclusively featuring locally grown, manufactured and produced products and services which are verified by Proudly SA for their local content and their quality as well as compliance issues including being tax compliant.

For anyone who may have issues with SARS, the Department of Small Business Development is supporting the One Stop Shop, relaunched this year as the Business Solutions Hub.

Sixteen institutions and organisations that regulate and assist SMMEs with legislative issues including SARS and the Office of the Tax Ombud, SEDA and SEFA, UIF and CIPC, the DTI, IDC, NYDA, NEF, Consumer Goods Council, CSIR, SABS and the B-BBEE Commission will be present and ready to assist with queries and applications over both days on the expo floor.

The Summit is for SMMEs, entrepreneurs, supply chain officials, buyers and consumers who can all derive benefit from the content and can go on to understand why buying local is important to the country, economy and to job creation.

To follow on Facebook click here.