Speaking from Cape Town during the partnership agreement, Dr Mike Herrington - Executive Director of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor says “In each economy GEM looks into two elements: entrepreneurial behaviour and attitude of individuals within a national context to understand the impact of entrepreneurship within a specific ecosystem. In numbers, GEM has over 17 years of data, conducts over 200,000 interviews a year, is conducted in over 100 countries; receives support from 500 specialists in entrepreneurship research, 300 academic and research institutions and 200 funding institutions.
The newly established partnership with SEA Africa will assist GEM in unlocking under-exploited focus areas within South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the rest of the continent. The Executive Head of SEA Africa Mr Kizito Okechukwu says “I am excited about this partnership with GEM. Our key role is to ensure that the entrepreneurship ecosystem in South Africa and the rest of the continent work together towards ensuring that the budding young population of entrepreneurs succeed. We will also work towards a sustainable private and public sector partnership and to provide the knowledge that will support policy makers, academia, business and entrepreneurs in their everyday work.
Indications are that the small business sector is beginning to take its rightful place as the engine for the South African economy. This was recently demonstrated by the establishment of the Small Business Development Department. Therefore providing adequate support through research and development will ensure that the environment in which entrepreneurs operate will enable growth which further stimulates economic activity to address the socio-economic challenges our continent faces.
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