More than five hundred enthusiastic young aspiring entrepreneurs descended on Allen Rautenbach Hall in Kroonstad recently. These young people responded to DESTEA’s invitation to the Enterprise Support and Development Roadshow initiated with an aim of accelerating entrepreneurship amongst young people to bring about economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction.
Research on the state of youth entrepreneurship in the Free State shows that one of the issues which contributes to low entrepreneurship participation rate amongst youth is lack of appropriate business funding instruments, and a lack of information where such instruments exist. “The youth have a tendency to look to the provincial departments for entrepreneurship support while neglecting development financing institutions and other private entities that are established to render these services”, said Dr. Nokwequ, Acting Deputy Director General of Small Business Development. The youth entrepreneurs got the necessary support for their businesses and skills to mitigate the risk of business failures.
The focus of the presentations was on the wide-ranging support that financing institutions could lend to small businesses. The institutions included amongst others: NDA, SEDA, Tender Capital, DSBD, SARS, NEF and SEFA. These sessions will ensure that youth entrepreneurs get the necessary support for their businesses and mitigate the risk of business failures. The following municipalities will host the next Roadshows in following towns on these dates:
- Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality – Botshabelo (Block K/H Hall) 17/03/2017
- Thabo Mofutsanyane – Phuthaditjhaba - Charles Mopedi Hall - 23/03/2017
These roadshows are the Department’s programme of information dissemination to empower the publics on opportunities presented by the government. They are meant to close information gaps between government and the recipients of its programmes and activities.
