Wrapping up 2022 Youth Month in Soweto
The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) led by its deputy minister, Sdumo Dlamini convened a youth summit in partnership with the IKO Youth to promote business and entrepreneurship in Soweto.
To wrap up Youth Month, the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) led by its deputy minister, Sdumo Dlamini convened a youth summit in partnership with the IKO Youth to promote business and entrepreneurship in Soweto.
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Under theme; Promoting sustainable livelihood and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow, the summit was aimed to help restore hope for job creation and advancement of local economy for young people faced by alarming unemployment crisis in the country.
Mxolisi Phiri, co-founder of IKO Youth said young people in townships needed to take charge and create avenues for themselves to create wealth and job opportunities through the ‘endless possibilities’ of entrepreneurship.
He furthermore said that there was a need for more dialogue and interventions from government institutions to partner with local organisations on the ground.
“Our partnership with the department of small business is because of the growing frustration we are seeing among young people.
“They need to understand the opportunities that are out there in the government space such as SEDA, SEFA, NYDA, etc. These organisations are out there but most of the people in the township don’t know about them, and those who know are often frustrated because of the processes and red tape.”
Department representative, Nomvula Makgotlho said the partnership was to help the department reach more young people and link them with support programmes.
Makgotlho further admitted that the department was in the process of restrategising and reviewing some of its programmes which have not yielded results.
She said the department was working around the clock, to improves services through continued engagement with entrepreneurs to ensure that they guide and partake in the implementation of changes.
The programme included having panel discussions and question and answer session, led by the senior manager of SEFA and beneficiaries who have received funding from SEDA and SEFA who shared their entrepreneurial journey.
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Zanele Baleni, founder of Tharollo Afrika, a company in the bedding industry, said the future is exciting and was looking towards putting the company on the map.
Baleni’s company is one of the small businesses which received funding from the department citing that through the funding she was now able to meet the demand in the market.
“Our biggest challenge in the business was that we had to outsource most of the raw materials and products which of course was expensive and we could not bench mark the already existing businesses.
So through receiving intervention and assistance from the department agencies, we managed to cut down a lot and are now are able to penetrate into the market and compete with the businesses that have been in the market,” she shared.
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