Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has announced the launch of the AWS Equity Equivalent Investment Program (AWS EEIP). Designed by AWS South Africa and Amazon Data Services South Africa, the EEIP will see over R365-million invested in the development of black-owned South African small businesses within the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
The intention is to support them to become cloud computing experts using the AWS Partner Network (APN). EEIP is a program of the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), aimed at providing multinational companies an opportunity to take part in the development of South African black-owned small businesses and to contribute towards the broad-based black economic empowerment of South Africa.
The AWS EEIP is a seven year program that will support the growth of new black-owned small businesses, helping them to develop their skills in advanced technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and mobile technologies.
“The AWS EEIP will lead to the development of numerous highly skilled jobs in the local economy,” said Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel. “The intention of the program is to give the black-owned small businesses the knowledge, resources, and skills to be successful. This will enable them to provide professional services to organisations, in both the private and public sectors, supporting them with their ICT strategy and helping them to take advantage of cloud computing and other digital technologies in order to innovate and grow. We seek to develop local businesses and ensure net job creation in the South African economy.”
The AWS EEIP will support 100% black-owned small businesses through an 18-24-month enterprise development and incubation program. AWS will provide training and education and support the development of these businesses’ technical expertise in cloud computing – resulting in new AWS Certified Developers and Solutions Architects. These businesses will also receive business enablement support, such as exposure to industry leaders, coaching, mentorship, and funding, to help take their business to the next stage of growth. As these businesses complete their training, and gain AWS competencies, they will go up a tier in the APN, becoming Select or Advanced Partners. Upon completion of the program, the businesses will have access to AWS’s ecosystem of millions of active customers, of every size, across virtually every industry around the world. AWS says successful completion of the programme will also enable the businesses to have exposure to opportunities beyond that of AWS.
“We have been blown away with the high quality of technical talent we have already seen in South Africa and are excited to see the creativity and unique thinking that the AWS EEIP will now drive,” said Prabashni Naidoo, a director at AWS South Africa. “Through this new program, we are committed to producing a new generation of highly skilled and productive black-owned South African small businesses.These new APN Partners will help create limitless opportunities for our customers, helping them to innovate and further contribute to economic growth of South Africa.”
About Amazon Web Services
For 13 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 165 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management. The services are provided from 69 Availability Zones (AZs) within 22 geographic regions, with announced plans for 13 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Indonesia, Italy, South Africa, and Spain.
