UP-led business hub to boost entrepreneurial skills of Mamelodi youth

A business hub launched by the University of Pretoria (UP) in Mamelodi will offer young people the opportunity to realise their entrepreneurial ambitions.

Based on UP’s Mamelodi campus, the Mamelodi Business Hub was established in collaboration with Unicef South Africa and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

UP Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tawana Kupe said the hub will endeavour to become a key catalyst in township revival and enhancement. It will not only focus on entrepreneurial development but also significant social impact via its focused service offerings to an array of communities in the region.

“The Mamelodi Business Hub is a proud entrepreneurship enabler and is part of the Department of Business Management’s quality-driven community engagement initiatives to enhance social impact through interdisciplinary-oriented programmes,” said Prof Alex Antonites, Head of UP’s Department of Business Management.

Originally known as the Mamelodi Business Clinic, the hub was established in 2011 by the Department of Business Management in UP’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

For more than a decade, the initiative touched the lives of more than 14 000 entrepreneurs. But now, what Prof Kupe describes as UP’s best-kept secret has reached a point where it is ready to scale its activities for greater impact.

The revitalised hub is born out of a greater vision for South Africa and Africa.

“The Mamelodi Business Hub will focus on being more than just a business incubator,” said Prof Kupe.

“Advancing entrepreneurship is one way to ignite economic transformation in the country.

The emphasis at the hub will be on:

– developing women’s leadership skills;

– introducing fourth industrial revolution technology via UP’s design lab, Makerspace;

– co-creating innovative products and services for young entrepreneurs via UP’s interdisciplinary-orientated teams and strategic partners;

– merging the needs of the micro-business environment in Mamelodi with the skills of UP undergraduate and postgraduate students;

– creating a base for collaborative international research that advances the body of knowledge on entrepreneurial and socio-economic development in the informal sector; and

– creating a unique entrepreneurship enablement model to be replicated in South Africa and Africa with university partners.

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