The 24 top entries in the Africa SMME Awards initiative were recently announced in Cape Town. Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) from all corners of the continent entered for this year`s competition and the finalists are representative of the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gush was among the finalists and came second in the information and communications technology sector.
Prof Gideon Maas, one of the judges, commented: "Gush is clearly an international player, or at least has the ability and competencies needed to do so."
The Africa SMME Awards are presented annually by the Africa Centre for Investment Analysis (ACIA) at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. The competition aims to recognise excellence among small businesses in Africa. In order to be crowned as the Africa SMME of the year, the winning enterprise needs to show a balance between business savvy and social agenda.
Says Volschenk, coordinator of the project: "Usually we see the slice for SA companies increase as we move from the percentage of entries to percentage of finalists. This year, this slice of South African finalists remained the same, indicating that non-SA entries are on average as strong as South African entries."
According to Volschenk, this is the first year that there are no categories with only South African finalists.
Regarding the entrant`s capabilities, Maas had this to say: "It is clear from the submissions that the entrants know their product and market needs very well and as such their financial performance reflects this in terms of revenues earned.
"In addition, it is exciting to see the potential innovations that these entrants wish to introduce to their respective markets but more importantly, creating new markets. It is from this that we can see and understand what true entrepreneurship is all about as opposed to merely creating small businesses; true entrepreneurship is about growth and this would arise from such innovations."
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