Engines fired for next Entrepreneur competition

Joyce Ncanana, the winner of the 2014 Entrepreneur competition, was amazed at how advertising regularly in the North Coast Courier has benefited her business.

At the launch of the fifth annual Ilembe Chamber Entrepreneur Competition on March 25, Ncanana thanked the Courier for the R40 000 worth of advertising that she won last year, in addition to the prize money of R25 000 she received to invest in her business.

“My prize has done wonders for my business. Every week I receive orders from these adverts,” she said.

Ncanana said the competition and the training it provided had dramatically changed her business for the better.

“The Ilembe Chamber is like an incubator that produces a real entrepreneur,” said Ncanana.

Ilembe district deputy mayor Dolly Shandu said the municipality fully supported the programme and she challenged entrepreneurs to make use of the opportunity.

The programme is co-designed by the KZN University and USA-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will run over a period of 12 weeks during which competition finalists will be exposed to intensive business modelling, both through tuition and practical application.

Competition entries will be invited over a period of six weeks with the first tuition session taking place on May 23.