IN what has been a successful public-private partnership over the past four years, FNB has kicked-off the 2018 edition of the FNB Academy for Municipal Excellence (FAME) in the Eastern Cape.
This year the programme will cover 120 municipalities across coastal and inland provinces, with the first three-day workshop being held at the East London International Convention Centre from 13 – 15 February 2018.
Over 45 senior municipal officials from across the Eastern Cape Local Government were expected to attend the workshop to get valuable insights around key administrative and operational challenges.
“Municipalities are the cogwheel of economic development in South Africa. It’s therefore important that they run as efficiently as possible,” said Eastern Cape MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Fikile Xasa.
“FAME acts as a meeting of minds where the private sector, academia, and developmental institutions come together and share ideas about how best to tackle some of the challenges that face municipal entities. It’s also an open platform for municipalities to share their success stories from which others can learn,” Xasa said.
Kgosi Ledimo, CEO of FNB Public Sector Banking, said municipalities deal with different operational challenges that often hinder service delivery. “The approach to finding solutions should not be a one -size-fits- all, hence FAME addresses a variety of issues that are relevant to different municipalities. The world is changing at a rapid pace and municipalities must stay abreast to ensure they can meet the demands of communities,” Ledimo said.
The workshop will primarily be anchored around Cultivating Transformative Partnerships for Sustainable Development and aims to inculcate SME development, strategic collaboration, infrastructure funding, community and business engagement, and disaster management.
“As FNB we realise that municipalities differ in terms of areas of strengths, and we want to tap into these areas and see how they can be used to close gaps in other municipalities. In addition to this we also bring in experts in various fields to share their experiences and impart valuable lessons to municipal officials,”said Ledimo.
After the Eastern Cape event, the FNB Academy for Municipal Excellence will be held in KZN from 6-8 March followed by Gauteng, which will be held from 10 – 12 April 2018.