Opinion | How to turn South Africa into a nation of start-ups, by Wesgro CEO Wrenelle Stander
In the Western Cape, a province widely regarded as an innovation hub and the Silicon Valley of Africa, the provincial government has been pushing hard to attract more VC funding into the region to boost the local economy.by Naspers, Africa’s most valuable tech company, to halt the operations of its R1.4-billion, South Africa-focused VC fund.
Moreover, putting in place all the necessary measures to give start-ups and small businesses a leg up can help to attract more foreign investment to South Africa. Investors are generally more inclined to put their money in a country with a booming start-up ecosystem as this invariably suggests that the country is open to innovation and has a high potential for growth. Attracting more foreign investment can accelerate job creation, economic growth and global competitiveness.
“We have a R250-million commitment from the Consolidated Retirement Fund and are in due diligence with both the Public Investment Corp and Rand Mutual Assurance. The Eskom Pension Fund has put out a request for proposals for VC funds to apply. All this will begin to change the landscape for VC as far as institutional capital is concerned,” Gordhan says.
These statistics see South Africa fall to fourth position on both measures, behind Egypt and Kenya. We should be doing better As the SA Start-up Act movement, a collective that represents the local entrepreneurship ecosystem, points out, start-ups deserve all the backing they can get as they have the potential to become high-growth enterprises underpinned by innovation to achieve above-average outputs in terms of growth, job creation and socioeconomic impact.In the Western Cape, the provincial government has been on a drive to attract more VC funding into the region to boost the local economy and job creation.
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