South Africa became the first African country to launch Startup Nations South Africa (SUNSA), which is a collaborative effort by founding partners, The Innovation Hub, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Wits Business School, aimed at contributing towards building a robust entrepreneurship ecosystem and vibrant sustainable entrepreneurship culture.
South Africa joins a global network of Start Up Nations such as Startup Britain, Startup Chile, Startup Malaysia, Startup China, Startup Norway, Startup Australia and more recently Startup Brazil, Startup Vietnam and Startup Korea.
Startup Nations is an entrepreneurship revolution, focused on advancing the national agenda for entrepreneurship and the creation of a sustainable environment where start-ups and small businesses can meaningfully contribute to the economic and social development of South Africa.
As part of the Startup Nations movement, Startup Nations South Africa will work closely with an international network of entrepreneurship capacity development experts to advance the local entrepreneurship movement.
Speaking at the launch event, Minister Lindiwe Zulu, Minister of Small Business said,
“The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2012 annual survey reminds us that entrepreneurship levels in our country are the lowest they have been in three years. The call to action is for all of us to work hard to inculcate a culture of entrepreneurship in the country. We must consciously strive to build a nation of entrepreneurs and not a nation of job-seekers”
In the spirit of vukuzenzele, our people must seize the economic opportunities presented by our democracy and freedom to build and grow businesses. We see small businesses and co-operatives as critical to creating an economy that benefits all. It is through this intervention that we will be able to defeat the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality”.
With its campaign mantra, to spark, seed and sustain, Startup Nations South Africa seeks to unleash local talent and create an entrepreneur ecosystem the drives innovative solutions for local problems.As a full member of Startup Nations and Global Entrepreneurship Week, supported by the Kauffman Foundation, this initiative will enable local startup businesses to share best practices and collaborate with other like-minded peers in the global entrepreneurship movement.
According to McLean Sibanda, CEO, The Innovation Hub,
“Innovation is critical for the growth of our economy as the National Development Plan acknowledges; start-ups are important elements of ensuring that innovation reaches the market and start to contribute towards job creation, poverty reduction and competitiveness.The Innovation Hub supports the establishment of the Startup.
“Supporting South African economic growth is central to IDC’s activities. This is a crucial initiative that will help encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship in South Africa, supporting government’s development objectives.” says Mr Qhena,“ We shall use the IDC’s infrastructure to leverage Startup Nations South Africa’s activities and impact so that we can better support, uplift and develop SME’s and youth in entrepreneurship,” says IDC’s CEO, Mr. Geoffrey Qhena.
The Startup Nations South Africa chapter seeks to tap into this vibrant sector in order to build a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem that will make meaningful contributions towards job creation and sustainable economic growth in the long term.
Nations South Africa platform as a means of creating enabling environment that will contribute to start-ups becoming high growth businesses.”
Startup Nations South Africa envisages to create a collaborative development framework with a focus on mobilising human, financial and institutional resources as a means to support, develop and grow startup businesses in South Africa.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of Startup Nation South Africa: http://www.startupnationsouthafrica.org/Susa.aspx
Startup Nation South Africa on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartupNationsSouthAfrica
Startup Nation South Africa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StartupRSA