The role of government in promoting youth entrepreneurship: The Case of South Africa

This paper proposes interventions that can be implemented by government in order to promote youth entrepreneurship. The motivation for this paper is that despite putting in place elaborate legislative and institutional frameworks to promote youth entrepreneurship, South African youth continue to suffer from limited participation in economic activities. The 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa underscores the rights of all people, including youth, to participate in the country's development. The National Youth Policy (20152020) aims at creating a conducive environment that enables young people to reach their full potential. The National Development Plan and the Vision 2030 provide several proposals to deal with youth unemployment through skills development, entrepreneurship training and provision of opportunities, so that they can ably participate in the development of their communities. Despite these and other well-meaning interventions, the contribution of youth owned and managed enterprises to the gross domestic product remained a paltry 5% in 2013. In 2009, South Africa was ranked 35th out of 54 global entrepreneurship monitored countries with a total early stage entrepreneurial activity rate of only 5.9%, which is amongst the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and the world. The 2016-2017 global entrepreneurship monitor reports that only 37.9% of South Africans perceived that they have the capabilities required to start their own business and only 35% were able to recognise entrepreneurial opportunities in and around their communities. It is evident that putting in place elaborate legislative and institutional frameworks alone is not enough to scale up youth entrepreneurship. This paper proposes interventions that can be categorised into the following themes: conducive and supportive government policy; supporting systems, structures and collaborative partnerships; appropriate and responsive entrepreneurship education; and developing and nurturing entrepreneurial behaviours.