A new partnership between logistics group DHL Express, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), financial services company Standard Bank and telecommunications company MTN aims to tackle a range of logistical, financial, regulatory and digital barriers preventing South African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from participating more meaningfully in Africa’s international trade markets.

The partnership, launched under the theme of “Unlocking Africa’s Potential One SME At a Time” at DHL’s head office, in Midrand, on August 11, intends to bring together capabilities across Africa’s trade ecosystem under the GoTrade programme, with each of the partners arguing that SMEs need more than access to finance and markets to become sustainable exporters.

Upon signing the GoTrade partnership programme memorandum of understanding (MoU), DHL Express sub-Saharan Africa CEO Hennie Heymans highlighted that the partnership represented an opportunity to create an SME growth platform that could help businesses access markets beyond immediate country borders.

“GoTrade is where we use our international network and expertise to help facilitate international cross-border trade with the SMEs. The more we can empower our SMEs, the more wealth we will create, the more wealth we create the more sustainable [South Africa’s] economic growth becomes,” Heymans said.

He added that the objective was not simply to create another corporate partnership, but to build an ecosystem capable of supporting SMEs through the practical realities of international trade. This includes helping businesses understand foreign markets, prepare products for export, secure financing, navigate regulatory requirements and ultimately move goods to customers.

Standard Bank Business and Commercial Banking South Africa head Simone Cooper commented that the partnership would build on the work already being done by the bank to connect SMEs with international markets and help navigate the complexities of exporting in Africa, and potentially in Asia.

“We typically take SMEs into various markets. We take them to China and across the [African] continent and we’re quite good at connecting them to the opportunities there. We then help them with the regulation and export components in an expert but book-ready way.

“What we haven’t done is being able to partner with a global player like DHL and this partnership adds that additional piece which can supercharge some of these programmes that we’ve been running and my challenge to the [Standard Bank] team is how we scale it to thousands of SMEs,” Cooper said.

For the dtic, this partnership forms part of efforts to address the practical barriers that South African businesses encounter when attempting to trade across borders.

dtic exports acting deputy director-general (DDG) Willem van der Spuy said the department is pursuing initiatives aimed at streamlining regulation and increasing digitisation, while also providing exporters with market intelligence and training.

“Today marks an important milestone in the dtic’s efforts to build a stronger, more connected export development ecosystem. At its core, the agreement we are signing with DHL Express is about bringing about complementary capabilities together.

“That includes policy, market intelligence and export development programmes. The private sector brings operational expertise, technology, finance, logistics and direct exposure to markets,” he noted.

Meanwhile, MTN value proposition and segments group GM Emmanuel Forson said the telecommunications group's contribution went beyond simply providing connectivity, as the group works with SMEs to identify their specific challenges and develop digital solutions that improve their productivity and competitiveness.

He noted that SMEs often lacked the time and resources to understand how financial technologies (fintech) could transform their businesses. As a result, he highlighted that the role of MTN, therefore, was to help close that knowledge gap, through connectivity and digital tools.

“When we talk about Africa’s growth engine, we are fundamentally talking about SMEs.

“Across our continent, SMEs are increasingly participating in regional global trade, but we also know that many of these businesses face the same fundamental challenges of access to markets, access to technology, access to reliable connectivity and the ability to move their products efficiently across borders.

“This is where we see a very strong opportunity for MTN and DHL to collaborate,” Forson commented.

Speaking to Engineering News on the sidelines of the event, Standard Bank Group Business and Commercial Banking international trade head Luthando Vuba said SMEs should comprehensively consider the market complexities within their planned export jursidictions before exporting.

He also cautioned SMEs not to automatically target the largest available market, arguing that the most attractive market on paper may not be the easiest or least risky to enter.

Vuba also recommended that SMEs should consider market demand alongside regulatory requirements, certification, customs procedures and other non-tariff barriers before choosing export markets.

Moreover, he urged SMEs to engage with financiers early in their development rather than only approaching banks when they require funding.

“Basic formalisation, tax compliance, business banking and registration remain essential to becoming bankable, but so too is understanding where a product has genuine demand.

“The objective is not simply to tell an SME that Africa represents a major opportunity, but to help determine which product should go to which market, through which route and with what level of risk,” Vuba concluded.