Telecommunications giant MTN South Africa, through its local foundation, is working to unlock entrepreneurial potential and development in South Africa by backing a youth entrepreneurship programme.
PrimeStars Marketing’s Step Up to a Start Up initiative aims to upskill Grade 9 to Grade 12 learners through practical applications that will equip them to launch their own businesses.
The Step Up to a Start Up programme, according to its website, aims to inspire and educate learners about the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and the “exciting opportunities that exist therein”, and is supported and sponsored by many South African firms, such as MTN, Sasol and Standard Bank, besides others.
MTN’s active role in supporting the initiative not only bolsters the National Development Plan’s ambitions to create 90% of South African jobs through small businesses by 2030 but also complements the company’s efforts to propel the country into the Fourth Industrial Revolution through the development of home-grown solutions.
“These are solutions that can assist in bringing self-reliance closer to the communities in which they were developed,” says MTN South Africa corporate affairs executive Jacqui O’Sullivan.
This comes as a new report by the Small Business Institute reveals there are only a quarter of a million formal small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMEs) in South Africa – significantly lower than many other reported estimates – with indications that the number of targeted jobs to be created by small businesses will not be achieved unless this vital segment of the economy is properly understood.
Since its launch in 2014, Step Up to a Start Up has exposed over 60 000 youth to entrepreneurship, paid out over R100 000 in seed funding to businesses that are in the development phase and contributed more than R150 000 towards bursaries to fund the further education of the winners.
This year’s theme for the Step Up to a Start Up programme is ‘Think Tech, Do Business’, which kicked off with a screening of an educational movie of the same name at 14 Ster-Kinekor cinemas across the country over the past few weeks.
The movie documents the journey of the main character, who discovers technology and starts a business that transforms her life and that of her community, O’Sullivan explains.
Each of the learners who attended a screening received a toolkit – developed by the University of the Witwatersrand and Regenesys Business School – designed to assist them in implementing the skills learnt by the movie’s lead character.
The youth were also invited to enter the national competition, which required them to develop and submit a detailed business plan.
Final entries will need to be submitted by October 31, with nine teams to be selected to attend an intensive four-day entrepreneurs bootcamp, where top entrepreneurship experts will share their knowledge and experience with them.
The winner will be announced on December 4.
Success Stories
“It is very encouraging to hear the success stories of the young people whose lives have forever been changed by taking part in this programme, and knowing that MTN has had a role to play in this,” says O’Sullivan.
One participant, Sipho Mlambo, along with his team, created a solar umbrella that collects and transforms abundant solar energy into electricity.
Mlambo, who also published a book on entrepreneurship last year, is currently studying, through a bursary, at the University of Cape Town and runs the institution’s Entrepreneurship Society.
Another example of a successful programme participant is Terrence Liswoga, who, along with his team, created noise cancelling headphones that were prototyped by Sizwe IT.
Liswoga is completing a BComm degree in entrepreneurship and business management at the North-West University.
The winner of the 2017 edition of the programme, Omphile Senkwete, and her partner, created a transport platform solution for commuters using public transport, with technical support provided by Raizcorp.
She has since enrolled at the University of Pretoria to further her studies.