SA needs a favourable environment to help entrepreneurs thrive
There is need for an investment community that is focused on small start-ups as access to finance is the main problem for small businesses
Nobody needs reminding that our unemployment crisis is pressing, and a real threat to social stability. We have also heard many times how important small businesses are to providing the jobs we need so badly. The government says small businesses are a priority, and we even have a minister of small business. Yet research by the respected Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that SA lags both its fellow African economies and its global peers when it comes to entrepreneurship. The findings of the most recent report on SA entrepreneurship make for depressing reading. The country has participated in this research for 16 years, and shows “persistently low levels of entrepreneurial activity relative to other countries participating”. Entrepreneurial intentions have dropped by more than a third since 2013, and almost 50% since 2010. Our rate of total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) is 2.5 times lower than the rate for Africa as a whole. We have to reconcile these dismal findings with two ot...
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