Young entrepreneurs are Khula

A provincial initiative to create jobs by encouraging new business was launched in Ballito last week.

Drawing on the success of The Entrepreneur programme run by the Ilembe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Khula Business Tour will travel to all 11 municipal districts in the province. Its aim is to find young people with strong business plans and aims to grow their ideas into profitable, self-sustaining companies that are committed to further job creation.

“We are searching for the DNA of entrepreneurs – we are looking for young business people who have been in the game for at least 12 months and demonstrate the grit and perseverance needed to flourish,” said Cobus Oelofse, CEO of the Ilembe Chamber, who addressed the meeting at the Ebandla Hotel as a partner in the initiative.

Funded by a number of government departments at national, provincial and local level including the office of the KZN Premier and the department of small business development (SBD), the Khula Business Tour was launched to address the 25.5 percent rate of national unemployment – of which a troubling 70 percent is made up by the youth.

“What we aim to do is to create a spirit of entrepreneurship among the youth and assist by introducing those with the ideas to the right institutions and to get them on the right track in order to assist in alleviating unemployment in South Africa,” said Nothando Zungu, co-founder of the Khula Business Tour. He said that unemployment was an epidemic that needed to be tackled.

Together with businessman Sizwe Mchunu, Zungu established the tour as a way of engaging government and interacting with business owners to employ young graduates and invest in young professionals looking to enter the job market.

Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) are also official partners of the tour, which will run every month until June 2016.

Set up as a roadshow, the Khula Business Tour allows its organisers to reach as many target businesses and young entrepreneurs as possible as it makes its way through the province.

The incentive is also to empower and equip those in rural areas with the knowledge and skills they need to compete and thrive in the business arena.

The department of small business development hopes to achieve this by offering qualifying enterprises grants of up to R1 million to kick-start the birth and growth of their businesses.

The roadshow is divided into four segments which include the business breakfast, the youth business park (equipped with its own ‘infotainment’ centre), the expo park and finally, the media centre, are all geared to introduce young people to the mechanisms of business.

The next Khula Business Tour will be taking place later this year in Newcastle.