DIDI ONWU | Favourable conditions needed to ensure youth succeed

In real terms, unemployment prevents young people from accessing networks for upward mobility. This leads to social exclusion and issues of self-esteem, which can contribute to mental health and behavioural issues affecting the wider community. It’s safe to say, as the greatest challenge facing SA’s young people in 2023, the 66.5% youth unemployment rate raises an urgent question: What immediate interventions can help deal with this situation?

Entrepreneurship as a powerful tool in fighting youth unemployment.

Entrepreneurship is about creating value through innovative solutions for meeting societal needs. SA should, therefore, encourage this kind of thinking among the youth. It’s time to create an environment where young people can try new ideas, by providing them with the resources needed to implement them. And this should begin at the basic education level with entrepreneurship as an integral part of the curriculum. The government should be intentional in creating an environment that is conducive to enabling entrepreneurial endeavours.

Young South Africans are capable. They continue to demonstrate their ability to build successful businesses that create jobs and income for themselves and their peers. 

Take an agritech start-up like Khula!, which recently partnered with Absa bank to transform the agriculture industry in SA. Using technology and strategic collaboration, aimed at growing farmers, Khula! was founded by Pretoria-born former Anzisha Prize fellow and hall-of-famer Karidas Tshintsholo in 2019. 

The business is an online fresh produce marketplace, allowing farmers to sell directly to bulk buyers. The Khula! Funder Dashboard connects institutional investors with farmers who meet their funding mandates. And, its recently-released Khula! Inputs Application allows farmers to access approved agricultural inputs and services from leading suppliers. The business creates direct income opportunities and jobs for many young people, and contributes to many more indirectly across the ecosystem and through the platform.

There are more examples of young South Africans leading the way. Athingahangwi Ramabulana is a 21-year-old medical student at the University of KwaZulu Natal. She is a multi-passionate individual with interests in entrepreneurship, medicine and the arts. In 2018, she founded Athinga’s Corner, a restaurant and catering company providing nutritious food to university students living in self-catering residences and communes. The company has also developed an online ordering system, and makes use of UberEats, creating income opportunities for delivery personnel through the platform.

Likewise, 23-year-old final year business operations student, Gaoagwe Jeje is passionate about food safety, biosecurity, and youth empowerment. Gaoagwe founded Kgosi Poultry in Mafikeng. Besides producing chicken for meat and egg consumption, the company also runs an online course on poultry – empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and students of agriculture in the process. They sell their chickens and eggs to individual customers, as well as wholesalers. Kgosi Poultry has plans to employ over 300 staff in more than 8 branches across SA. 

These young people have demonstrated, under very difficult conditions, that it’s possible to build job-generative businesses and to create income opportunities for others within their supply chain networks and ecosystem.

Under conducive conditions, young people in SA may just be able to create more jobs, help mitigate youth unemployment and reduce poverty. It is, therefore, time for the government, policymakers and the private sector to recognise entrepreneurship as a viable solution and create an environment in which young people can succeed.

Didi Onwu, managing editor: Youth & Investors at the Anzisha Prize