SA does entrepreneurs like us no favours
The number of start-up companies has halved because of lack of policy co-ordination
As millennial entrepreneurs who benchmark ourselves against international standards, we can unequivocally state that SA’s environment is not conducive to the growth of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises. The statistics speak for themselves: according to the Small Business Institute, SA now has 250,000 formal small SMMEs, a drop of nearly 45% from a previously reported 554,000. Though 98.5% of all registered businesses in the country are SMMEs, they only provide 28% of employment, whereas the international norm is 60%-70%. While many laudable initiatives have recently been launched by the private sector to foster SMME growth, we believe these will not optimally achieve their aims, and 70% of SMMEs in this country will continue to fail within their first two years if entrepreneurs and the private sector do not partner to lobby to change the policies that have led us to this unfortunate situation. One example of a major policy inhibitor is the lack of regulation in the enter...
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