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Gauteng promotes innovation, entrepreneurship

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 22 May 2017
Barbara Creecy, Gauteng finance MEC and head of the Department of E-government.
Barbara Creecy, Gauteng finance MEC and head of the Department of E-government.

Gauteng's provincial government has officially unveiled its facility aimed at encouraging participation of youth and township entrepreneurs in the digital space.

Located at the Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein, the Maxum Digital Hub will support and develop entrepreneurs in the gaming, animation and virtual reality industry.

In a statement, the provincial government says the facility aims to identify and support developers in creative industries, which have previously been neglected.

According to Barbara Creecy, Gauteng finance MEC, launching the hub will see the modernisation and development of the country's young creatives.

"This includes organising boot camps for developers, and establishing incubators such as this one, as well as the eKasi labs to support the ongoing business needs of emerging entrepreneurs."

The digital hub has been established in partnership with the Innovation Hub, the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency, Wits University's Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering and the Gauteng Department of E-government.

So far, it has managed to incubate 16 youth and women entrepreneurs, and plans to bring that number to 30 by the end of the financial year.

The hub will support the entrepreneurs with much-needed business and technical support to develop their business concepts, branding, coding, testing workshops and legal or intellectual property advice in digital gaming and digital technologies, the statement reads.

"We want them to develop into vibrant, innovative, cutting-edge enterprises that will create jobs and offer a better quality of life to our people," says Lebogang Maile, MEC for the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development.

"There has been minimal transformation in this sector, mainly because of its inaccessibility. The Maxum Digital Hub has therefore been set up as a catalyst to bridge the gap of access to resources and markets in gaming, animation and virtual reality."

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