Cannabis and Hemp Business Mastery Programme
in partnership with GIBS
5-week online with
2-day industry immersion in johannesburg

We are proud to have partnered with Africa's leading business school, Gordon Institute of Business Science - GIBS (University of Pretoria), to bring this programme to the industry.

The Cannabis and Hemp Business Mastery Programme focuses on the Cannabis and Hemp ecosystem and value chain and the development of entrepreneurial thinking and skills. The course will give attendees access to some of the sharpest and most experienced minds in the African Cannabis and Hemp Industry and also provide an international perspective on the global opportunity for African Cannabis. Students will be exposed to the three verticals that make up the Cannabis and Hemp industry supply and value chain while developing entrepreneurial skills that can be honed to navigate this and other dynamic sunrise industries.

As the Cannabis and Hemp industry emerges and governments open up legislation, the African Cannabis and Hemp industry is becoming an attractive business proposition for entrepreneurs, SMMEs, investors, health and wellness practitioners and agricultural specialists.

Considering the economic challenges our continent faces, sunrise industries are more important than ever before if we are to bolster our economies and drive job creation. The Cannabis and Hemp industry is well placed to become a seismic contributor towards this. The understanding and skills learned in this course can encourage research into, and entrepreneurial thinking about similar sunrise opportunities. For these industries to realize their full potential, seasoned business minds and professionals are needed.

The programme will be instructor led via Zoom. Live session recordings, PowerPoint decks with notes and a resource pack of curated videos, reports, research articles, case studies and more will be shared with the students after each class. An assignment, a Multiple Choice Quiz (MCQ), will be set for the attendees at the half way mark of the course as well as at the end of the course to ensure attendees have understood the key points. 

An online Community Zone will be set up where attendees can network, support each other’s learning process and share knowledge and experience. 

The programme ends with a 2 day industry immersion in Johannesburg where you will visit a number of businesses operating in the industry including a licensed Cannabis farm.  

LANGUAGE:
English

START DATE 2025:
TBC (please email to enquire academy@cheebaafrica.com)

DELIVERY METHOD:
Online via Zoom:
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm - 8:30pm
Immersion in person:
Cheeba Cannabis Academy Campus, Rivonia, Johannesburg / Visit to a number of Cannabis businesses 

COST:
R16,700 per person
Bring a friend and get a 10% discount  

BUSINESS OF CANNABIS SHORT COURSE

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

- Individuals older than 18 years at the date of enrolment and who have a Grade 12 (Matric) or equivalent
- Anyone interested in starting or growing a business in the Cannabis or related sunrise industries
- Ecosystem partners who are interested to learn, network, and support aspiring entrepreneurs
- Health and wellness / agricultural practitioners who recognise the importance of the Cannabis industry and
   want to start or grow a business within the value chain
- Investors looking to invest in the industry

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

- Describe the current Cannabis and Hemp legal framework and its challenges
- Identify the three different Cannabis and Hemp industry verticals and how they intersect
- Describe the Cannabis and Hemp industry value chain
- Demonstrate an understanding of the Cannabis and Hemp industry metrics that drive the commercial practices
   of the industry including but not limited to product price per gram, plants per square meter, yield per plant. 
- Identify employment opportunities in the Cannabis and Hemp industries
- Identify entrepreneurial opportunities in the Cannabis and Hemp industry
- Demonstrate the ability to commercialise a Cannabis and Hemp industry idea using business modelling skills
- Demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset with transferable skills applicable to sunrise industries

MEET YOUR LECTURERS

Trenton Birch

Trenton is the CEO / Co-Founder of Cheeba Africa who run Cheeba Cannabis Academy, Cheeba Cannabis Training, Cheeba Cannabis Consulting, Cheeba Cannabis TV and Cheeba Delicious. He is also Co-Founder of the trade organisation Friends of Hemp South Africa and has been instrumental in driving legislation forward as the industry lead for pillar 8 (Education & Communication) of the Cannabis Master Plan. He is a regular public speaker and has been at the forefront of driving the South African Cannabis and Hemp industry forward for the last 4 years.  

Clive Ramathibela

Seasoned Market analyst and economic commentator Clive Ramathibela is a South African born and UK educated scholar who has been providing economic overviews on South African media since 2011. His career started at Sasfin Bank as an investment administrator. In 2013, he joined Inkunzi Wealth Management, as head of Institutional business and redesigned the portfolio offering of the investment platform. In 2015, he established Clivera Consulting, a multi-disciplinary advisory firm that focused on educating and influencing economic policy to empower SMME’s and specifically black owned business. Later, he partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Today, he is a managing partner at Hectare Capital & Partners and continues to work with Finance Development Agencies. He has officially partnered with the Department of Agriculture and an indigenous medicinal company called Druids Garden, and together have launched a Medicinal Hemp and Cannabis Project, named Insangu Yokhahlamba, working with traditional leaders and their communities.

Lebo Mabeba

Lebohang Mabeba is a Social Media Lead and Content Strategist, specialising in digital marketing and content marketing. She helps brands build advocacy and resonance with their audiences and leads teams of industry experts to help brands transform their business strategies into impactful campaigns and content. Lebohang has experience in B2B and B2C marketing and is currently a Social Media Lead at VMLY&R.

Natie Ferreira

Natie has over two decades of experience in the landscaping and the agricultural industry and is a Cannabis & Hemp farmer with over 15 years cultivation experience. He is a founding partner in Qure Analytics, a company that provides analytical services to all sectors of the Cannabis market in South Africa, has an extensive network in the industry and holds valuable intellectual property around producing Cannabis in South Africa. He is also the owner of Dagga Pharmacy and Tamatie. 

Dr Yernush Naidoo

Dr Yernush is a General Practitioner that was trained in acute psychiatry and general surgery during his community service and junior years as a medical officer in the government sector. He has a keen interest in human enhancement medicine which has led him to the study of The Endocannabinoid System and the field of Medical Cannabis. He treats medical patients across the country virtually and at his two medical practises in Durban, South Africa. Through his first-hand experience he is able to accurately assess and diagnose multiple conditions and determine proper treatment plans with precise dosages and forms of Cannabis extracts to rebalance any deficiencies in the Endocannabinoid System. The treatment plans are tailored to each patient's lifetyle, level of disease and level of understanding of Cannabis.

Dr Nobulali Dangazele

Dr NobuLali Dangazele was appointed as a lecturer at GIBS in 2021. Before joining GIBS, Dr Dangazele thrived as an award-winning producer while pursuing a Master’s in Dramatic Arts. Following the completion of her master’s from WITS, for which she was awarded the Mandela Rhodes scholarship, she started ShakeXperience ® an applied theatre company, best known for the award-winning African adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm as well as their teaching and learning methods. She later pursued a doctorate at Warwick Business School where she also co-founded Nudgeathon®. A Nudgeathon® is a two-stage crowdsourcing event where decision groups use insights and methods from psychology, economics, design, and the performing arts to produce implementable solutions to major challenges involving human behaviour. Dr Dangazele brings a wealth of diverse experience using the arts to inform her research, teaching, and facilitation. She believes that authenticity is imperative for leadership and meaningful impact.

Jeff Verlinden

Jeff is a Pharmaceutical and Cannabis specialist with a BSC in Biochemistry. He has a passion for bringing botanical medicine into the mainstream for specific patient treatment indications. Over the last few years he has focused on pushing to bring awareness to the need for harmonisation of standards for medicinal Cannabis and unregistered botanical medicines. He is a lecturer and Academic board member at Cheeba Cannabis Academy, runs his own Youtube channel called South African Cannabis Extraction and is a divisional manager at the pharmaceutical company Separations. 

Clara Norell

Clara is the owner of Swedish Hemp Industries SHI, a consultancy that works with hemp fibers/stems as sustainable fossil-free innovative bio-based materials/applications for different industries. In her 6th year of Hemp farming in Sweden, her company is the first ever in Sweden to produce Swedish grown and de-hulled hemp seeds for the health food market in Sweden.

Noxy Mhlongo

Noxy is a promo producer / editor for DSTV and one of South Africa’s leading Cannabis influencers. She is a presenter for Cheeba Cannabis TV and features regularly with product reviews, industry updates and is on the pulse of what is happening in Cannabis culture across the country. 

Quinton Pretorius

Quinton is a compelling and thought-provoking facilitator and speaker who taps into his extensive experience in the corporate and NGO sectors, both locally and abroad, to engage with his audiences on issues of diversity, equity & inclusion, interpersonal communication and personal potential development. He has developed a reputation as one of the best facilitators in the country and is known for speaking with genuine conviction, passion and an inimitable frankness that inspires and provokes individuals and organisations to expand the scope of their vision. Through a facilitation style that is highly interactive and probing, he is able to help diverse audiences make the transition from a subjective worldview and interaction style to a broader state of appreciation for the real breadth and complexity of social interactions in multicultural environments. He is well-known for his use of immersive exercises, engaging storytelling, and a good measure of light-hearted humour as he weaves together lessons that leave lasting impressions on his audiences.

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