The founder of Mel Innovation International (MII), Emily Nakana, wants to inspire and share her skills with young girls around Vosloorus.
With her knowledge as a businesswoman and her experience in the corporate space for 10 years, Nakana hopes to help young girls identify their passion and make a living out of it.
The Vosloorus entrepreneur has been nominated to become an apprentice on a prestigious entertainment platform on VIA, channel 147, called Ster-Status, which she described as a wake-up call for her to contribute towards uplifting youngsters in her community.
According to Nakana, the programme consists of prominent actors, directors, producers and photographers.
They invited young girls whom they are trying to teach skills and to take them through the production of a reality show.
“I was inspired to do the same thing for my community the best way I know how, given my experience in the private sector and business,” said Nakana.
She said after seeing what other people are doing for their communities, she felt inspired to take the knowledge and share it with young girls in her community.
She initiated the small company MII in 2019. The company is a big umbrella that caters for other businesses that fall under it.
“Initially, when I started the company I did not want to focus on one thing. I wanted the company to focus on many other things.
“That is when I started the Mel and Neil Salon, which is a small salon that I ran by myself at the moment. I am hoping to get more people involved with the operations of salon.”
The young entrepreneur said she wants the company to be a training facility to help interested young girls. After training, the girls would be immediately placed into a workspace.
Nakana went through a development programme called Pitching Boosters, held by the City of Ekurhuleni and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) when she started her company in 2019.
The programme was introduced to help young entrepreneurs.
She feels saddened that women are not part of such educational initiatives, adding that she was the only female who attended it.
“It can’t be that only our male counterparts are creating businesses from nothing. The people I was up against were pitching brilliant ideas. I have toi question why not more girls are not involved.
“Is it because they are not or don’t know how to start a business or is it because they just feel like it’s a men’s world?” asked Nakana.
She further explained that even on the Vosloorus Facebook group, it is mainly men who are posting and promoting their businesses.
This is one of the reasons her training will focus on girls. Women around Vosloorus are invited to join the initiative.
The programme will now start in May. To join or for more information about the programme, call or WhatsApp 063 203 0311.
To support the programme, local businesses and big brands are invited to sponsor it with a venue for the training, food and transport. Some of the businesses that currently sponsor the programme are:
• Who & What Holdings, founded by Clement Mothwa
• Sniper Photography, founded by Banele Nxumalo
• DK Academy, founded by David Konrad
• Tshepo 1Million, which will be offering entrepreneurship skills to women.
