Entrepreneurship making a good stand in universities
"The SAB Foundation has pledged up to R400 000 which will be managed and disbursed by the newly launched Fund..."
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills are the talk on people’s lips.
The University of Limpopo (UL) in partnership with South African Breweries (SAB) have started a Seed Foundation to help learners that have business ideas and solutions with funding of their projects.
The UL-SAB Student Seed Foundation was signed upon on Wednesday, April 24 at the University of Limpopo by both the university and a representative of the SAB, Ntando Nodada.
A press release issued by the university stated that the university’s partnership with SAB will encourage and support student-owned social innovation enterprises.
“The SAB Foundation has pledged up to R400 000 which will be managed and disbursed by the newly launched Fund,” said SABs Ntando Nodada.
Social Innovation Specialist for the SAB, Ntando Nodada further stated that in terms of the pledged funds, R100 000 would go to management while the remaining R300 000 will be given to students who have promising ideas and solutions.
Students will be given funds up to R15 000 each for their ideas and if more funds are needed, depending on the progression and successive results of each project, students will be given additional funds.
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The university will offer all qualifying enterprises business coaching and mentorship, wherein all the enterprises will go through a rigorous process with the final enterprises being decided upon by an investment panel.
The panel will consist of representatives from the University of Limpopo, SAB Foundation and industry experts.
Furthermore, it was stated that one of the key strategies of the university is to become an entrepreneurial institution and thereby entrepreneurship is to be infused in all its academic programme offerings.
Nodada also added that the mandate and aim behind the initiative is to help develop students, to improve themselves and to improve their communities and by so doing, it will uplift their skills and help them think out-of-the-box.
When asked about the diversity and limitations, Nodada told the LETABA HERALD that the initiative will remain open to students of all backgrounds regardless of field or year of study and in terms of diversity, she stated that 85% or more of the beneficiaries must be black-owned businesses as this falls in line with the SAB Foundation BBBEE targets.
“The initiative started in 2015 at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business’s Bertha Centre and we have started scaling the project with other institutions this year, which saw UL being the first institution to roll-out,” stated Nodada.
She further continued to state that since every instituion is different, any challenges that may arise during the first year will be dealt with accordingly.
“We expect that if there are any challenges with the setting up processes in the first year, we will be in a position to guide the university because we have a base from which we can work and adapt accordingly,” concluded Nodada.
Professor Singh of the University of Limpopo gave a vote of thanks in closing of the meeting wherein she thanked the SAB for their will to embark with the university on a journey as big as this is.
Applications to take part in the initiative opened on Wednesday, May 1 and they will close on Friday, May 31.
These applications are strictly for students who are enrolled at the University of Limpopo.
