Sectors in SA must collaborate to nurture small businesses to success
THERE has been a raft of initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship as a means to assault the high rate of unemployment — pegged at 26.7% — and consequent alarming poverty levels in SA.Only a quarter of young African men and a paltry tenth of young African women manage to land jobs in the formal economy before they turn 30, reports the African Development Bank.However, despite these many initiatives or pro-SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) legislation, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor describes this country’s activity as "very low for a developing nation", noting that the nation lags behind its continental peers.On the other side of the coin, SA — in the league of Italy, Malaysia and Argentina — is second to none in Africa when it comes to infrastructure, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Index.This costly mismatch between low activity and advanced infrastructure points to a disunited stakeholder front, government and industry, when it comes to nurturing small b...
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