What are the competitive advantages of the ICT sector in South Africa compared to the other countries in the continent?

From a broadband infrastructure point of view, we have good coverage. We need to improve in spreading that to the rural areas and looking at the cost factor. We have the capability but broadband Wi-Fi needs to move into a social needs perspective versus a commercial process. We need to ensure everyone in this country has access to Wi-Fi. One of the most empowering things is access to information and to the world.
Related to the ICT sector, our banking systems are one of the best in the world, and even the regulatory environment is renowned. We need to deploy more quickly the capabilities of ICT in the country in order to compete globally.

What is the role of TIA in the South African market?

Firstly, as an organisation that has a mandate to focus on innovation & technology, we need to assist in creating and enabling an environment that can cultivate the type of technologies we need. We work with science councils, high education institutions, universities of technology.
All of them are role players to ensure a proper space for the innovators and producers of ideas to take them into the market.
Secondly, we establish direct funding and entrepreneurship support. In everything that TIA does, we would like to see a product that moves to the markets. That process is where we would establish a business, making sure that it becomes a commercially viable product, accesses to market, creates jobs and stimulates the economy.
We look at accessing other funding steams through partners, collaborative networks, co-funding opportunities. We have a portfolio of companies with equity from previous investments from which we get a yield that we employ for our funding.

How do you create those partnerships?

Partnerships are both local and international. We establish relationships by proactively depending on our mandate or plans, with which we try to intercept the most credible partners who would share that mandate with us.
There is also a common denominator between all government departments in the NDP around the role of Innovation & Technology development.

What has been your role since you become CEO of TIA in 2015?

In 2008, the TIA act went through but as a model, TIA’s formation came from an amalgamation of seven other different entities. It was to be expected that bringing all those entities under one roof would bring a period of instability. The important thing is how we dealt with that instability and proactively anticipated it, putting programmes into place.
One of the areas I focused on when I joined TIA is the people, the processes and the services we offer. We firstly ensure we review our people, matching them to the right positions, putting proper performance contracts in place, holding them accountable, etc. We did a very intensive evaluation of all our systems and processes, making sure we optimised them. We tried to engage extensively with the stakeholders to listen to their wants for TIA.

What support do you provide before the funding stage?

We have a department called “the Innovation skills development unit”. It looks at the different phases from the idea to the market. We provide training in all those areas: how to develop a business plan, how to pitch, how to provide financial models.
We look at those programmes not only in the urban areas but also in the rural areas and townships to ensure a broader spread to provide the capability and to ensure the entrepreneurship environment.

What would you like to accomplish for TIA in its 10th anniversary next year?

My desire is for TIA to be the premier DFI instrument in South Africa, a benchmark for funding support, seen as the place to go for innovation & technology development support. I have no doubt we will succeed.