Google reveals how pledges made at SAIC have helped IT sector

At the start of the Investment Conference in 2018, Google was part of the first pledges which subsequently prompted them to showcase how they have been rolling out those initiatives and how far they have come.

Google was also part of the sponsors of the Fifth Conference taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Pledges at the conference significantly contribute to the national goals of socio-economic development to create sustainable jobs to reduce poverty and drive back inequality.

These investments have also contributed to an increase in local production and encourages efforts to buy locally.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa has reached R1.51 trillion in pledges, overshooting the initial R1.2 trillion target by 26%.

Siya Madikane, Google’s Communications Public Affairs Manager in South Africa, spoke to SABC News at the start of the conference about the investments that they have made.

“Through our announcement through our CEO in 2021 where they announced that we are investing $1 billion to the continent in the next five years, that’s what we’ve been doing. We are here today to showcase some of that investment and what we have been doing and how far we’ve come. We are part of the first pledges made in 2018. This is us showcasing exactly how we have been rolling out that investment we’ve been making.”

Startups investment

Madikane was showcasing Hustle Academy Business Bootcamp amongst other virtual initiatives that they run. The Bootcamp enables Google to enable start-ups as well as assist them. The Bootcamp has enabled Google to train over 1 000 start-ups in the country.

“Here at the conference, we have Hustle Academy Business Bootcamp which is one of the virtual boot camps that we run. It is work we do towards start-ups; how we enable start-ups and assist them. We do have also the Black Founders Fund which is a programme we have been running for three years. What we do as well there as well is enable and support start-ups to develop from the level they are in into the next level obviously using the tools we have, meaning technology. In terms of the Hustle Academy itself, we in sub-Saharan Africa have trained 5 000 start-ups over the last two-three years and in South Africa 1 200.”

Infrastructure investment

During the 2020 South African Investment Conference (SAIC), Google announced its investment into a high-speed, subsea cable that would enable affordable internet access, and drive a significant increase in South Africa’s GDP.

While Google invested in the Equiano undersea cable alongside a variety of partners and carriers, the tech company partnered with Openserve and Telkom to bring South Africa’s landing to life.

“The investment that we made in terms of infrastructure is the Equiano undersea cable that you may have heard about last year that landed in Cape Town. It is a cable that runs from Portugal, Nigeria, down to Namibia and finally landed in Cape Town in September last year. The aim of it all is to try and make sure that we increase access to the internet and try to reduce costs for the internet so that we can fast-track digital transformation within South Africa. We expect to create 180 000 within the next five years and contribute about $7 billion to the South African economy and increasing the speed of the internet,” adds Madikane.

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation drives foundational change in how an organisation operates, optimises internal resources, and delivers value to customers. Madikane also says that increasing internet speed can assist in more people onto the internet.

“If you increase internet speed you can get more people onto the internet doing more on the internet for example you do less paperwork and do everything online.”