Entrepreneur of the Year announced

In his address to the winners, TechnoServe country director Earl Sampson, stated that, "These awards have supported 250 entrepreneurial businesses in the last three years, which in turn have generated close to 300 additional jobs and around R31 million in incremental revenue for these businesses. In addition, the establishment of an Alumni network, which holds this group together, continues to co-ordinate learning, and continuously seeks acceleration for those businesses that are ready to grow.

"Often events like the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the strength and competitiveness of the formal sector allow visitors, donor communities and aid organisations to make rash assessments and not understand how many South Africans remain without access and meaningful participation in the economy.

"Somewhere between 12 and 15 million South Africans are food insecure; meaning the inability to secure food on a regular consistent basis with the right level of nutrition to live a healthy life. This does not suggest that South Africa cannot produce this food requirement, but more the fact that the ability to access this food is severely limited.

"I prefer to use the thought that a developed nation is one that is able to provide its people with a wider range of choices on how they live and sustain their lives. This aspiration of greater choices for all, together with other factors that help South Africans break the cycle of poverty, is why TechnoServe remains in South Africa.

"Whilst we understand that the solution is complex, multi-faceted, and always prone to over-simplification, we do believe that the organisation is well placed to make a meaningful impact in the context of the South Africa challenge.

Entrepreneurial projects

TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries. Over the past four decades, its work has led to the launch or expansion of thousands of businesses and transformed the lives of millions of people.

In South Africa, it works in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, in partnership with The Ford Foundation, piloting with small-scale farmers supplying produce to already established value chains. "We believe we have a model that supports small-scale farmers in accessing inputs, linking them to viable markets and mentoring them in accessing and repaying production loans," adds Sampson. "Our vision is to grow these interventions to gain critical mass, in turn reaching a significant part of the South African population. It is at this point that we really start to generate meaningful and sustainable impact."