The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) last week launched its Enterprise Development Academy (EDA), which will focus on providing business education and supporting small business owners to further create jobs.

“It is commonly known that 80% to 90% of new businesses fail in the first two years as they face major challenges, such as lack of business skills and access to capital and new markets,” said GIBS EDA director Yogavelli Nambiar at the launch.

As a result, he added, the EDA would provide practical and relevant business education and leadership training by leading faculty and industry specialists for entrepreneurs, followed by comprehensively structured support services. This would ensure that the academic learning was applied to the business environment and the desired impact was achieved.

Nambiar also pointed out that to ensure that business education was accessible to those who would not ordinarily be able to afford it, the EDA would work primarily on a scholarship-based model – offering free education to all participants through the generous contributions of public- and private-sector partners committed to enterprise development.

Delivering a keynote address during the launch, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu indicated that small businesses and cooperatives were expected to be central to South Africa’s job creation efforts, in line with international trends. Thus, the department was convinced that, in order for it to make an impact on the job creation front, investment into small and medium-sized businesses through skills development should drive economic growth and job creation.

The Minister mentioned that what still hindered the effectiveness of the drive for economic growth in South Africa was the low rate of entrepreneurship in the country. Through the EDA, GIBS was urged to assist further in building a nation of entrepreneurs.

“The National Development Plan (NDP) sets an ambitious aim of trebling the size
of the economy by 2030, a daunting challenge that will require our collective contribution. Meeting the NDP’s growth target of 5.4% for the next 16 years would not only guarantee South Africa’s material prosperity, but would also be an elevating and inspiring narrative for the country – ‘an optimistic new story’, as the NDP phrases it,” she highlighted.

Zulu indicated that, with the current state of youth unemployment, it was critical to question whether young people should be encouraged to go the entrepreneurship route to reduce the unemployment rate. By so doing, young people could be encouraged to be change agents for further economic growth.

She pointed out that acquiring much-needed skills through initiatives such as the EDA, young people would be able to occupy the front trenches in the reconstruction and development of the country.

Applauding the launch of the EDA, Zulu invited GIBS to work closely with the Small Business Ministry to assist in finding lasting solutions to the many challenges that confronted the country.

“GIBS can be beneficial in helping us answer some of the complex questions pertaining to enterprise development we have as a department. This can be done through GIBS placing its expertise at the country’s disposal and assisting the department to develop appropriate interventions that respond effectively and adequately to the needs of the small business and cooperative sectors,” she concluded.