In its efforts to formalise township trading, Pamodzi Group launched its new smart shops initiative project on 5 September in Soweto to help boost the local economy and empower emerging entrepreneurs.
Through its digital technology business, Pamodzi Smart aims to professionalise informal traders and improve their financial management. It’s a trading platform and device that supports better stock management, cash management, calculations and reporting, as well as empowering smart entrepreneurs in emerging markets to offer a diversity of services traditionally only available from formal retailers.
Speaking at the launch, the company’s chairman, Ndaba Ntsele said the group had three distribution centres including one situated in Alexandra. The other two distribution centres are in Soweto and in Garankuwa in Pretoria.
Ntsele added that there were currently four Pamodzi Smart Shops in Gauteng citing Diepkloof, Meadowlands, Dobsonville and Chiawelo – all in Soweto.
“We want to help our spaza shop owners grow their businesses and to make them also successful entrepreneurs in our townships,” Ntsele said.
“We want them to compete with other big companies such as Makro. We have enough firepower here at Pamodzi to help and educate spaza shop owners with their operations and enable them to succeed in business.”
The chairman said the scheme was not only limited to those who owned spaza shops but also young emerging entrepreneurs who aspired to venture into such businesses.
Sonto Magidi, Gauteng general manager for Pamodzi Smart, said the idea was to empower township entrepreneurs offering them sustainable business training to grow their businesses.
Magidi added that many township businesses were struggling. “This is because many have to travel long distances to order their stock and spend more money on things such as transport so that their goods are delivered.
“So we want to ensure that they save and create wealth for themselves which will subsequently [circulate] in their own townships,” she said.
To this end, Seeta Matete, an information technology specialist for Pamodzi Smart, said they have created a customised system to make things easy for business owners to place orders for their stock.
“The system allows you to see which products are selling more and in demand and it also assists with reordering of the stock. The system also has a reminder on which products are almost reaching their expiry date as well.”
This is the state-of-the-art system for our clients and it is easy to use the system, he concluded.
The launch, held in Soweto, was well attended by partners, spaza shop owners, township entrepreneurs and various other businesses owners in Gauteng.
Details: sonto@pamodzi.co.za
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