Young Alex entrepreneurs scoop top award
JOBURG - Enterprising young entrepreneurs are honoured as they Step Up 2 social challenges in their communities.
New Headphone Inventors (NHI) of Afrika Tikkun’s Phuthaditjhaba Centre in Alexandra scooped first prize at the Step Up 2 A Start Up’s enterprising young entrepreneurs award ceremony at Gold Reef City.
They beat 10 other entrepreneurial teams that comprised two to three schoolchildren per team, identified through a national competition and adjudication process showcasing their innovative work.
The Alex outfit was closely followed by the two runners-up, Repad Ambassadors and Flaunting Africa of Ribane-Laka High School in Mamelodi and Westering High School in Port Elizabeth respectively.
All the finalists’ business innovations were also showcased amid a flurry of excitement at the awards, of which the City of Johannesburg was one of the major sponsors.
“This special night, on which we celebrate our young entrepreneurs, is the result of a programme that ensures that vital lessons of entrepreneurship reach thousands of high school learners from underserviced urban, peri-urban, townships and rural areas across South Africa,” said Martin Sweet, managing director of Primestars Marketing, the organisers of the awards.
With every year that passes, the programme grows in capacity and breadth, consistently exploring new elements of entrepreneurship to increase its success and impact across the vast South African youth demographic, Sweet added.
The inspiring road towards entrepreneurial excellence, started in August, with a launch at 15 Ster Kinekor cinema complexes nationwide, that hosted more than 16 000 schoolchildren who were privy to an educational feature film that had been produced exclusively and specifically for the programme.
On the night, a wide assortment of stellar prizes that translated to more than R1.6 million in value and much more by way of intellectual space and property, meant that a lot was at stake for the participants.
Present at the awards ceremony was Gauteng Premier David Makhura and his MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, who both came to land their support to the entrepreneurship programme.
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