Twenty-year-old third year urban and regional planning
Speaking at the prize giving ceremony of the Challenge on Thursday night, Acting President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said it was important to pursue such initiatives as they had the potential to contribute to the transformation of the economy.
Mr Tsogwane said the challenge did not only inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship, but encouraged innovation and creativity.
"The university challenge continues to grow in leaps and bounds. I'm told that there was overwhelming response to the call for participants for this year's challenge, where a total of 218 applications were received relative to 144 applications in 2018," he said.
He said the 218 individuals were inspired to do more outside their everyday lives by producing business proposals to participate in the challenge.
He said participation in the competition was testimony of commitment to develop solutions for challenges facing the economy, which would contribute towards national wealth.
Mr Tsogwane said the challenge was a stepping stone towards the
"Government continues to develop policies and programmes to support the sector and render the necessary support to various institutions, which participate in the SMME sector ecosystem including
Mr Tsogwane said the National Entrepreneurship Policy, which was recently approved by government, recognised the need for coordination of efforts by all stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem including private sector, non-state sectors and development partners.
"Through initiatives that have been initiated by
However this must be coupled with dedication, commitment and hard work in order to succeed," he said.
He noted that the relationship between
For his part,
Mr Thamane said the key theme of the challenge was for young people to come up with innovative solutions to issues of unemployment in the country, adding that the manufacturing industry had the largest potential for employment creation, with SMMEs in the lead.
He said the winner would be enrolled in entrepreneurship development training to provide them with the ability to recognise commercial opportunities and skills to enable them to better organise and manage their businesses.
He said in addition to the cash prize, the winner would be enrolled in the Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (GEB) to be held in
Ms Ntshiwa's winning proposal plans to produce biomass briquettes from raw materials such as organic waste, industrial saw dust and agricultural waste.
Source : BOPA
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