Established in 2006, National Construction Incubator (NCI) is a public benefit organisation mandated to develop and mentor emerging construction companies in South Africa. The core business of NCI is to develop emerging contractors through the infusion of both technical and business administration skills that are aligned with the infusion of technology in order to enhance the efficacy management of their businesses.
The Incubator is aimed at providing support to selected participants for a period of three years by which time each emerging contractor should have advanced by at least one financial level above their entry point on the CIDB register and be capable of operating unassisted in the open market. Should a particular contractor not wish to advance more than one CIDB financial grading, an alternative primary indicator will be agreed, possibly “gross income/turnover” if multiple smaller projects are deemed to be the niche market of the particular contractor.
The construction incubation model is one of the interventions, if not the only one that can make a significant impact to addressing the challenges faced by emerging contractors in South Africa. Most construction businesses (SMME) veto the services offered by the NCI as one of the solutions with regards to skills shortage. There is consensus amongst the majority of client bodies that the model offers a good strategy to assist emerging contractors. The level of formality the model brings to the industry is also widely acknowledged and appreciated.
NCI provides support in three critical phases of development of emerging contractors: tender phase support, construction phase support and general administration support.
For the effective development of the emerging contractor, a certain selection and development criteria is engineered to ensure that these contractors are competent in the industry. In the 2019/20 the National Construction Incubator supported 369 construction businesses in South Africa and in return these SMMEs contributed over R500million towards the economy of the country.
Our Vision
Is to be the leading construction incubator and centre of excellence in the development of competitive Small Medium Enterprises through business, technical and innovative interventions within the built environment.
Value Statement
Integrity, respect and excellence is in the center of our services delivery whereby the reliability of our team through collaborative efforts ensures that we are accountable for all that we do and demonstrate ethical leadership at all times.
The NCI model has four programme phases:
- • Outreach Programme
- • Pre-Incubator Programme
- • Mainstream Incubation
- • Post Incubation
NCI Value Statements
- • The NCI mentorship model has been tried, tested and proven to be a preferred contractor development programme
- • NCI incubatees have access to reliable registered Technical Mentors with various industry bodies e.g. SACPMP and skilled Business Development Mentors for soft skills mentorship
- • The incubation programme brings formality into the sector
- • NCI has a governance structures in place (board of directors) and subscribes to King IV governance principles
- • The programme model is designed with precision to address contractor development programme
- • NCI learnerships and skills programmes are SETA accredited
NCI a women led only construction incubator in RSA, guarantees a willing-value-sharing stakeholder success in the built environmental sector.
