JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2021) South Africa has unveiled plans to help 15,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by 2024 in the hope of tackling staggering unemployment, among the youth in their first place.
On Tuesday, South Africa's Small Business Development Department hosted a webinar to report on President Cyril Ramaphosa's February 2020 commitment to support 1,000 SMEs within 100 days.
"We were interrupted by the pandemic but job was done. We are tasked with the responsibility of helping 15 thousand businesses by 2024," Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told a webinar.
Unemployment has reached crisis levels in South Africa. According to the statistics agency, 2.5 million young people aged between 15-34 were unemployed in South Africa in the second quarter of 2020. The youth unemployment rate thus totaled 34.1 percent, in accordance with the narrow definition that refers to people actively seeking work.
As for the expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped active search for job, the rate among the youth rises to over 50 percent.
Speaking at the webinar, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) CEO, Waseem Carrim, said that youth entrepreneurship in the country was relatively small and called for concrete steps to encourage it.
"Young people in SA have a passion, but no right mechanism. The correlation between education and entrepreneurship needs to be looked into. There are more young men than young women in SMEs, and this is not because of discrimination, but because young women have less time at their hands due to other commitments," Carrim said.
He went on to share interesting statistics.
"In two townships where we conducted our research only 15 percent of micro-enterprises are being run by young people who are under the age of 30 and often only one in three of these entrepreneurs were non South Africans. What we see is that the life-style shows some new start-ups and we find that those entrepreneurs are running internet cafés, producing music at home, or being Dj's, designing flyers or posters, they operate gyms, they make clothes or sell fast food," he continued.
According to Carrim, the country must first understand the skills of young people in order to develop a proper plan.
"It is not only about disbursing funds but providing after care monitoring and evaluation for sustainable growth. We want young people to capitalize in the local economy and this is the first step in the presidential youth initiative, and we must give support. In terms of the sectors we have been able to support � we saw an increase in the services sector," he stated.
There have also been grants in the motor and automotive sectors, as well as in agriculture and agro-processing.
"In the programme we supported 58 percent male participants and 42 percent were female. We will fulfil the president's commitment. 26 percent of businesses took a knock because of Covd-19. 96 percent have employed over 10 people or so. We are also happy that through the Temporary Employment Relief Social Grants and the Unemployment Insurance Fund we were able to help and the NYDA with stakeholders-has developed a platform called SA youth with entry point for young people in the economy and we encourage them to take advantage of this remarkable opportunity," Carrim said.
Minister Ntshavheni agrees that the government needs to change its focus and create a favorable environment for SMEs.
"Businesses need the necessary environment and location and support for them to prosper. The NYDA is South Africa's first black owned franchise. I have also noticed that the sectors where young people showed more interest were in construction, marketing, fashion, event management and motor manufacturing," she said.
Another priority area is artificial intelligence.
"We must now support those in high risk industries like technology. It is important that we support home grown solutions and tech-start-ups," the minister stressed.
The overall focus of the president's initiative to support 1,000 businesses was, however, to improve the livelihood of those who are in the mainstream economy, according to the minister.
The government also hopes to unlock the potential of young people to become employers and competitive players in the global economy.
"This is the government's effort in promoting cohesion and nation building," Ntshavheni said.
Among the relief aid beneficiaries who shared their stories was Wanga Pholi who received funding to start a borehole and a farm for cash crops. Thanbang Lieeu now runs a cosmetic and perfume shop and said she was assisted with equipment and has increased her employment staff from two to six people. Another one was Sibongiseni Zulu whom the initiative helped to start his film and media production company and who is planning to run a tv channel. Lastly, Shirley Mashishi said that the NYDA helped her expand her beauty business by adding a hair salon to massages and nail services. Mashishi has employed three persons.
