Youth entrepreneurship must be treated as a national imperative requiring coordinated action from the business sector, government, and educational institutions if South Africa is to effectively address its unemployment crisis, an expert panel told audiences at the Trialogue Business in Society Conference 2025 hosted at The Galleria in Sandton, Johannesburg, on 13 and 14 May.
The panel discussion, presented in partnership with Absa, brought together corporate social investment (CSI), education and academic voices to explore entrepreneurship development and examine how South Africa might better translate policy into practical impact for young entrepreneurs.
“No longer is business in society about maximising shareholder value and returns. Today’s business must create shared value by empowering communities,” Absa Managing Executive: Corporate Citizenship Dr Steven Zwane told delegates in his introductory presentation on day 1 of the conference. He said that business needed to take a more proactive approach to changing society and that entrepreneurship is a vehicle to drive this change. “If we can convince young people to become entrepreneurs they won’t only be employable but will be job creators and we’ll address the scourge of youth unemployment.”
Why entrepreneurship is so important to Africa
Small business and entrepreneurship play an essential but overlooked role in South Africa’s economy. Speaking on behalf of the Department of Basic Education’s E3 initiative, Dr Taddy Blecher pointed out that 70% of all formal sector jobs in South Africa are generated by small businesses. “If you add the informal sector, over 90% of South Africans are feeding their families through small business.”
Entrepreneurship has long been recognised as a critical driver of economic development across the African continent, where small and medium enterprises form the backbone of most economies. Unlike developed economies where large corporations may dominate employment, African economies rely heavily on entrepreneurial activity to create jobs, drive innovation, and build resilient communities that can adapt to changing economic conditions.
Despite the data showing that Africans are natural entrepreneurs, Blecher said that South Africans did not demonstrate the same entrepreneurial mindset as say their Nigerian and Kenyan counterparts. He attributed this to inadequate exposure to positive entrepreneurial exposure in the home and the lack of inclusion of entrepreneurial thinking in our formal education system.
SA demonstrates low rates of entrepreneurial action
Professor Anastacia Mamabolo, who specialises in entrepreneurship research and is the Absa Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, noted that inadequate historical data on youth entrepreneurship in South Africa had complicated efforts to address the issue. However, emerging data showed that very few young people were participating in entrepreneurial activities compared to older individuals and that the progress of entrepreneurial enterprises from intention to action, and then to becoming established businesses, was extremely low. As little as 11% of the 28% of young people consider entrepreneurship as a future path take any steps to do it. Even fewer succeed. The statistics are even worse in rural communities where youth entrepreneurship carries a greater imperative for job creation, social development and community stability.
Lack of exposure to self-starter thinking combined with evidential witnessing of the high rate of entrepreneurial failure in South Africa are likely to blame for the low rate of entrepreneurial activation. “We need to change the narrative around entrepreneurship,” Zwane asserted. “We haven’t embraced that entrepreneurship comes with failure. Young people see the failure and avoid it. We need to create stories and models for young people to believe the future belongs to them.”
Accelerating youth entrepreneurship through education
The panel agreed that the inclusion of entrepreneurial thinking into South Africa’s formal education system is an essential start to generating the entrepreneurial practice that is going to support our economy.
This is the task that the E3 initiative has set out to achieve. “Our goal is that by 2030, every child in every school in every province will have entrepreneurial experiences,” said Blecher. “You cannot teach entrepreneurship from a textbook. You do it through repeated experience of problem solving.”
The discussion also drew attention to the need for this education to be more than just business management skills, but to include practical, personal approaches rather than theory-based teaching.
It also addressed the myth that successful entrepreneurs typically drop out of school and lack formal education. “Research found that the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs in the country have been to university. People think education is opposite to entrepreneurship, but it’s not true. The more educated you are, the more successful you’re likely to be as an entrepreneur,” Blecher commented. Since most successful entrepreneurs emerge between the ages of 28 and 40, evidence suggests that employment, work experience, building capital, growing networks and developing the expertise around which to build a competitive business are important contributors to entrepreneurial success.
While inculcating entrepreneurial thinking into education is an essential part of the process, Mamabolo urged audiences not to overlook what she called “the Missing Middle”. She noted that interventions are sorely lacking for individuals who have not been exposed to the option of entrepreneurship at school or university on account of incomplete secondary school education. “Currently there are no interventions for them. But they have the potential to shape the entrepreneurial landscape,” she said.
Creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurial success
Encouraging entrepreneurial thinking, intention and action is not enough to realise the potential that small business holds for South Africa’s economy. What is needed is to create a broader enabling environment for young people to succeed. It is here that CSI can play an important part in the process, one that Absa has adopted as its primary CSI drive.
Absa has invested R319 million in programmes focused on entrepreneurship development. “Absa is committed to creating an ecosystem where young people move from an entrepreneurial mindset towards taking decisive, action-oriented steps towards building a sustainable future,” said Zwane.
Young entrepreneur Mulweli Sigabe, who is supported by Absa, added his input to the needs of young entrepreneurs like himself. Sigabe, who is the founder of Beyond Smile and the developer of innovative hygiene products including self-cleaning adult diapers and sanitary towels designed for ease of use and privacy, told audiences that securing funding to develop and patent his product, creating manufacturing equipment and finding partners to scale his business presented the biggest challenges.
He emphasised that what young entrepreneurs need most is support and patience. Since delivering an idea takes time to build and establish, as well as skills the entrepreneur may not have, what is needed is guidance from those with experience to help them succeed, building pivots and failure into the learning process.
The panel identified several key enablers for a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem, including;
- Better understanding of the barriers to youth employment
- Access to targeted education and training
- Long-term impact catalysation rather than short-term interventions
- Customised financial solutions specifically designed for young entrepreneurs
The panel called for greater support for young entrepreneurs in South Africa to transform policy into practice that might contribute to enriching the economy and addressing youth unemployment. As Zwane concluded, “Through cross-sector collaboration, targeted capacity building, and strategic allocation of financial resources, we can create a future where youth entrepreneurship is not just encouraged but is an engine of national growth.”
