Cape Town – Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Buti Manamela, was so impressed with a hand crafted bag made by a Cape Town businesswoman, a beneficiary of the NYDA grant, that he hinted he might return to buy it.
“I am waiting for pay day,” he quipped.
The Deputy Minister, accompanied by National Youth Development Agency (NYDA’s) chairperson Yershen Pillay, was in town on Tuesday to visit two projects funded by the NYDA’s Grant programme.
The fund targets youth entrepreneurs with an aim of helping their businesses sustain themselves and create more jobs.
After the two visits, he told SAnews that government wants more young people to come up with good innovative ideas of starting or growing their existing businesses.
“It is quite impressive that young people are using their innovation, their skills, in order to create sustainability in something that they are very creative about.
“Overall impression with the visits is that we need more of this. We need to expand the NYDA Grant system. We need to expand the type of support that is given to the NYDA and that could be the only way at which many other [businesses] can be created throughout the whole country, but also to have the existing companies to be able to expand and employ young people,” he said.
His first stop was at the Phillipi township, where he visited Andaz Auto Mechanics CC.
The business, located along the busy Govan Mbeki Street, is run by Anda Melane, a young entrepreneur who received funding through the NYDA Grant programme. He currently operates his own motor mechanic business, specialising in engine overhauls, maintenance and motor vehicle repairs.
The Deputy Minister said Melane was given an NYDA Grant of R47 000 within a month of applying for it, and after just six months, his business has already yielded results.
The business employed five more people during that period, his bottom line increased by a rate of 15%, and he got more money to buy more equipment and to train his staff.
“It makes us proud that more and more young people are not seekers of jobs, they are creators of jobs. They see themselves as contributing to the economy.
“We think that this is money not wasted … and the fact that there are 100 other projects similar to this in and around the city gives us pride that the NYDA takes care of the needs and aspirations of young people,” he said.
Pillay said the Grant programme has had a positive impact on many young people across the country.
“Nationally it has been a great success. We aimed to give out 500 grants with R25 million, but we reached 589 beneficiaries with R25 million and almost each of them; have had at least one job being created.
“Over and above creating a culture of small business, which was the main objective, it is also creating jobs in the economy at a small business level.
“So we hoping to engage the Department of Small Business Development with the Grant model to say can’t we mainstream this Grant programme of the NYDA because it has been a great success and actually make it more than just R25 million and reach more than just a 100 youth-owned businesses in the Western Cape,” he said.
Pillay and the Deputy Minister made their second stop at a leather bag and clothing manufacturing business in Woodstock, which is run by a young married couple.
Safia Stodel, 26, told the Deputy Minister that she has always been passionate about making bags from when she was still a student, and that she started making her business formal when she started receiving more orders from her friends and family.
NYDA gave her business, Ilundi Designs, about R40 000 to help her stock up on raw leather, and she said this has enabled her to hire more staff and to sustain the business. – SAnews.gov.za
