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Thu, Nov 24, 2022 3:25PM • 13:08

* This is an auto-generate transcript and won’t be grammatically correct.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cannabis, industry, jobs, clubs, universities, grow, work, courses, employed, cultivator, skills, training, hear, create, businesses, sector, south africa, thought, network, people

SPEAKERS
Kobus Grow One Africa, Dean, Andy

Andy
Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome back to marijuana SA weekly. It’s Andy and Dean. And today we’re going to be having a short interview with the founder of grow on Africa, who’s going to be telling us a little bit about how personally he’s seen cannabis, create jobs in South Africa, it’s been a massive driver of the channel is pretty much why we are here where we are today because of the cannabis industry opening up. And yeah, personally, we strongly believe that South Africa could do with the jobs that cannabis could create in a legal open market. However, maybe the sector is not there fully yet. But there have been massive strides, and today we’re going to hear a little bit more about it. Dean, what are you expecting to hear today,

Dean
so I’m super, super excited to be having Kobus on and to talk about this topic. You know jobs and cannabis are obviously things that you hear quite a lot of the time. And it’s actually something you hear a lot of the time from sort of government as well as one of the sort of entry positive, positive, you know, there’s multiple positives that we know, but they’re always slow behind. And I think we’re going to be surprised to hear at some of sort of what the grow and African network has done. And you know, once again, you know, even even in our own personal capacity, we’ve managed to create some jobs in the space. So I think this is going to be a topic that’s that’s highly interesting, and also valuable for the broader community.

Andy
I think on that, let’s bring in COVID, the expert ecovis Thanks so much for joining us today to answer a little bit of q&a is around cannabis and job creation. Personally, I’m going to jump straight in with a bit of a question. Obviously, we know cannabis can create jobs within South Africa. And it’s proving to be quite a good thing for South Africa in terms of obviously, we know we have a bit of a crisis on our hands, but just in like your like small personal network. God roughly how many people do roughly think cannabis, just just around you? How many people do you think you know, that have been now empowered or employed by cannabis in some form or another?

Kobus Grow One Africa
So a loaded question, I think in our direct group at the moment, I think our website says just about 1200 jobs within the group. That’s for 22 clubs across the country, of which about 150 or cultivators and processes. And then there’s indirect jobs nowadays about 700 ancillary jobs just within that network, so small group like us at least 2000 jobs. And then if you do the math, you know, there’s at least 200 clubs operational or shops operational across the country that I know of. So you’re at least 10 times that. I don’t speak to a lot of people these days that don’t work and cannabis. Actually astounding,

Dean
and courbet’s on the sector’s in the in the in the industry? Where do you see sort of most of the most of the employment taking place?

You see, I think it’s always a gold rush for cultivation. Yeah, everybody thinks that must stop, right. But it’s all these ancillary services, that’s actually picking up quite a bit. They have the skills required in every sector. I think if we look at the 150, cultivators and processes, you know, each of them have assistance assistance with various roles, at the clubs and at the shops, you know, it’s anything from a cleaner all the way through to an administrative assistant, and but in the managerial roles, you know, there’s finances involved. We’ve got compliance officers. So it’s a very difficult answer, actually, I think it’s it’s such an infancy that the industry is in, but I think it’s evident that there’s opportunities everywhere, you know, just you just have to apply your skill and your passion, and there is definitely a role or job for you within the cannabis industry. And that’s for sure.

Dean
Yeah, I really, I really liked that. Because, you know, most people who getting who are sort of looking at the industry first they think, you know, the only way to get involved is to grow. It’s such a broad industry, that it’s really not like that. But on that point, you know, are we seeing enough sort of skills development and train people to fill these roles? Or do you feel we kind of have a lack of of skills currently, that still needs to be developed?

Look, it’s a definite fact that there is a skill shortage at the moment for licenced facilities. I speak to recruitment officers and people looking to place people in licenced facilities. But it’s expected, you know, the education system has to catch up, we have to, you know, typical old thing out you play someone without experience, you know, where do they get that experience from? All comes back to you know, accredited training and things like that. But I think at the moment, it’s clearly obvious that a lot of the guys that thought they are great growers and they can scale up to commercial size didn’t have a clue they have to make 6000 claims at a time and that they kill their own passion by doing it. So they do realise that it’s all these other roles stepping in, you know, like I said, the quality management systems people doing the audits and the surveillance and things like that. There’s there’s a bunch of consultants doing that. But then the practical work of running an operation like a licenced facility, you know, this is a factory running you need skilled people in each and every position. So I think there is a bit of a vacuum at the moment between proper avenues where you can get this not just training but also experience. I feel the clubs do fulfil a bit of a role there. And over a couple of folks that started as interns or you know, maybe studied something cannabis related then started working in a club maybe progressed to cultivating or processing. I know of a cultivator that actually, and I think he could have been our first official cultivator being placed overseas as a as a proper cultivator and spine, that also came through the club ranks. So they all wise and vessels where people can have access to market, but at this point, or will actually get into the market. But at this point, you you definitely have to develop your skills, you know, to the highest standard you possibly can, and then look for those courses to accredit yourself. But the the shortage is real.

Andy
On those on those courses that you mentioned it, do you think the universities are going to adapt? I mean, obviously, there’s been movement from the from the government side, do you think the universities are going to adapt certain specific courses for cannabis? Or do you think we’re going to rely on our sort of like, agro agricultural history within South Africa to cross train into into cannabis?

No, I think it’s inevitable, you know, I’m of the opinion that we do cultivate the best cannabis in the world. And it’s going to be up to us as the cannabis sector to force you know, these institutions into upskilling, the future generations, you know, in appropriate courses. So personally, we’re involved with, I’m involved in our companies involved with some universities, were doing some commercial research and development project. You know, I think you change the policies at university level, before you change the national level, you know, I think you implement all these cannabis master plans, structures with the students, if a legal student has to do a project on a library light the topic, why not make it an example, within a data club where someone gets fired for smoking on the job, you know, like, let’s, let’s plant the seeds. And they will definitely come along. Luckily, universities or businesses as well. So they do see the potential in this. And I really think it’s up to the industry and the industry experts to formalise these projects with institutions of higher learning, there are some great examples of private sector training institutions that are doing their But and if you know, the rest of us can just connect all these dots and make sure that the training is sufficient. And you know, even guys like you, you’re going to be leaders in this industry in a couple of years, like, Who do you want to see working with in your businesses? Who do you want to work with? So let’s get that training up and running. So I think it’s a real responsibility between the universities and the industry to kickstart that,

Dean
that’s amazing. Yeah, that’s actually something we’ve really tried to push that off in our own company, you know, training and cross training for us is such a highly important factor, because we want to, you know, push skills development as much as possible. And I think that’s also kind of one of the things that is, you know, allowed us to continue to grow in the industry. And it’s a sort of a concentration on constant sort of skills development. On a little bit of of what the government has to say in February of this year, Rama poza, said that the industry could be worth about 130,000 jobs. Where do you think we are currently with this? Is this over estimation? Or do you think they’re not looking at sort of the industry that’s already been around for millennia?

I mean, it’s the same. It’s the same government that says there’s 900,000 farmers growing cannabis in our country, right. 30,000 jobs, I don’t know how you want to quantify it. Because I think it’s in excess of that already. Like, way more than that, I think the potential is a lot more than that. Like I said, you know, just in our little group, you know, we are getting significant numbers. So where do you also draw the line? How are you employed by the cannabis industry? Is it are you just making some money out of it? Are you a consultant in it, you know, are you full time employed by it? Because now that people realise you can apply your skills within this industry, you know, there’s all these different industries starting to overlap. So yes, I don’t like to call out our president, but I think he grossly underestimated to what the industry already is, you know, before formalisation, so to speak, you know,

Andy
I get I get really giddy with talking about jobs, because I mean, like, realistically, the start of like, our business back in the day, I was a bit of a history, but like, it was, you know, I always just thought like, there’s so many people in South Africa that really don’t have much, but if they could just grow some cannabis on their, you know, on a small little piece of land that they’ve got, like they’re made the the benefits from that is just profound, you know, whether it’s medicinally or whether it’s going to create a living, you know, sustenance living for that person, or that fan. Emily is just like something and it’s at no harm to the, to the country. So it’s, yeah, I get quite, quite passionate about the job creation side of things and Kobus on that, though we have, we have unfortunately run out of time, but it was very inspiring to hear from you today. And, yeah, really appreciate what you guys are doing. And hopefully, we’ll be connecting a little bit of time and see some more jobs being created. Back so locked up, you guys, thanks for having me. Just amazing, like, the thought of like an industry that, you know, South Africa could create, like 500,000 jobs from from cannabis. And it’s not just cannabis, it’s not just growing. It’s marketing. I mean, like, even for us, like, you know, we in the Grow equipment space, but we’ve got people doing like, you know, basically almost full time doing thumbnails for like our media channels, and video editing. And like, those are all like, I mean, printing we, you know, we have massive printing balls, we definitely employ like courier drivers for the deliveries, you know, it’s, yeah, it’s just good to see. In our

Dean
area, we’re one of the only places that we’re the courier comes in twice every we have a good relationship. So you sandwich just pops in and say what’s up, but you know, there’s the sort of sub businesses that we work with are large, I mean, just on local suppliers, I’m chatting to 2030 different people, people a week, you know, we’re dealing with sort of, sort of large gardening chains, and, you know, all these different businesses, and then like over said, you know, there’s accountants in the space. You know, it’s just so like, lawyers, yeah, yeah, whatever you studying, you know, if you’re passionate about cannabis, you could still go into it one day, but I must just say, you know, it is also super hard work in this industry. So the passion is an important part of it, because it’s, we slow legislation and with constantly having to manoeuvre around changes, it does, you know, does weigh on you sometimes, but, you know, we keep driving it forwards. And it’s really refreshing to hear from someone like Kobus, who’s done a lot of work in the space to hear just sort of just how many people are interacting with, with the network, and we hope to see you continue to grow.

Andy
Yeah. Likewise with the education. I mean, it’s it’s, it’s not there yet. You know, hopefully there’s channels, hoping a little bit of the way with the education side of things, but it’s, I think the universities will adapt I mean, there’s there are some obviously lots of short courses like accredited short courses. I think that some we might even be assisting with down the line. And it’s just yet it’s good to see that it’s is there’s signs of hope. Let’s just hope the government comes through and doesn’t curveball us change something down the line, but I think yeah, I think around the room today, it’s optimism and good vibes. So I think on that I’ll close out and just say thanks to you guys for watching all the way to the end. Please make sure you liked and subscribed, as always helps us a long way. leave us comment if you also agree or disagree with the 130,000 jobs created. And otherwise until next week. Peace guys. These guys