Kizito Okechukwu | April 25, 2024
It’s no secret that entrepreneurs are the driving force behind economic growth and job creation.
Most economies in the world are powered by entrepreneurs, who in turn create between 60-90% of jobs in their various countries. For entrepreneurs to have the freedom to prosper, they need a robust ecosystem that supports their efforts. A vibrant and inter-connected system, great support networks and an open economy system are all but what makes entrepreneurs succeed.
This year marks a significant year for South Africa, as it celebrates 30 years since the country had its first democratic elections, thereby eliminating the apartheid era that marginalised most of the population. Since then, government has put in various measures to enable the development of micro, small and medium enterprises. Several interventions have been put in place to enable innovative startups to start and scale. However, with all these measures in place, South Africa still experiences one of the worst unemployment rates in the world at 32.1% of the working population, which also means that over 7 million people walk around the streets without jobs.
Only entrepreneurs have the power to solve the unemployment crisis facing the country, but before they can solve this, we need a strong, vigorous, and resilient entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports their constant growth. For this to happen, we need the following interventions:
As the popular saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. To build entrepreneurs, we need a collaborative and rock-solid environment that will always prioritise the entrepreneur.
Enabling policies are crucial to pro-entrepreneurship development and our country can only be free when each and every person has a job – and most of these jobs can really only be created by entrepreneurs.
Kizito Okechukwu is the Executive Head of 22 On Sloane and co-Chair of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) Africa
Kizito Okechukwu
Boitumelo Kodisang
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