Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has challenged the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to support at least 15 000 start-ups by 2024, with a focus on tech-driven companies.
Ntshavheni was addressing the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) and NYDA’s webinar on the progress made in supporting 1 000 small businesses and entrepreneurs in 100 days.
“We must now support young people in businesses that we call high-risk businesses, such as technology innovations and digital businesses that they are involved in, and other avenues where young people are moving the barriers but with little support because our support tends to be risk-averse.
“We need to be bold enough in our support for start-ups, to take more risk and allow our young people to experiment.”
South Africa struggles with high unemployment levels, especially among young people. Statistics SA (Stats SA) has described SA’s youth unemployment as a major national challenge that needs urgentand coordinated responses to address it.
According to Stats SA, young people aged 15 to 34 are the most affected by joblessness. The statistical service’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows the unemployment rate within this age group was 43.3% in the first quarter of 2020.
In his State of the Nation Address last year, president Cyril Ramaphosa made certain commitments towards fighting youth unemployment, proposing a two-pronged approach that would create opportunities for youth employment and self-employment.
As part of this intervention, the NYDA and DSBD committed to provide grant funding and business support to 1 000 young entrepreneurs in 100 days.
Ntshavheni noted she and her deputy minister, the department and the NYDA have been tasked with the responsibility of supporting at least 15 000 start-up businesses by 2024.
“By 2024, we should no longer be referring to a high unemployment rate of young people in this country. We should be reporting back about high economic participation of young people in the economy of this country.
“Unlike our parents and our forefathers, who were trained to be job seekers, we have a responsibility to train and support job creators. An inclusive economy is an economy where South African young people are no longer job seekers but the creators of jobs for their peers and also for themselves.
“Economies that have advanced, more especially in this age of digital technology and the fourth industrial revolution, are economies that have been driven by start-ups.
“Jack Ma, not so long ago, owned one of the largest start-ups, Facebook was another start-up, Google was also another start-up, and so forth. I can name a number of start-ups that have driven economies of the world and now have now become giant companies.
“They have been able to achieve this because there has been a focused and policy emphasis by their own governments in supporting start-ups, but also in adopting the technologies or the business models that those start-ups generate.”
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