DUT AND ITHALA SIGN AN MOU TO UPLIFT THE LOCAL ECONOMY BY Simangele Zuma
DUT, in collaboration with Ithala Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), hosted a virtual signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in September to seal their agreement to support local economic recovery.
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his prestigious ceremony, which was attended by over 60 guests, showed the DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Thandwa Mthembu and Ithala Group Chief Executive Ms Pearl Bengu signing the ground-breaking MoU. DUT, ranked as one of the top five universities in South Africa, and IDFC, a 60-year-old development finance institution, recognise that in order to pull the economy out of its downward spiral, there must be a pooling of strategies and resources to drive decisive change. DUT and IDFC have thus joined forces to build an Innovation Hub to develop technology innovations in order to improve the lives of DUT students and assist in elevating the local economy. In her opening remarks, DUT’s Deputy-Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement Professor Sibusiso Moyo said that the signing ceremony marked a number of months of preparation to reach this stage.
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“This day is very special in the sense that we formalise our intent to co-operate. For us to thrive as a KZN or South African economy, we need to remain active. We need to ensure that our people are skilled. Digital literacy at the moment is one of the key areas where skills are needed, both to communicate and also to train,” said Professor Moyo. She said that the discussion with the IDFC started off by trying to see what DUT could do in the entrepreneurial space in order to contribute to the economic growth of the Province. Bengu said that Ithala takes matters of boosting the local economy and contributing to the skills development of small businesses very seriously. “It is because of these reasons that the two entities sat down and decided to map out strategies that will see the business sector rise again. COVID-19 has had a significantly negative impact on the local economy and no sector has been left unscathed. Economic recovery postlockdown requires collaboration from public and private
