Promoting Youth Empowerment through Business Mentorship in South Africa

Abstract

One of the setbacks in youth entrepreneurship is the unavailability of proper business knowledge and mentorship. In rural municipalities of South Africa, the absence of youth mentorship has widened the inequality gap and triggered deep youth poverty. This article reinforces the importance of youth mentoring in crucial business aspects such as writing business plans for entrepreneurial success. This study is premised on a positivist paradigm that uses a quantitative research design. The researchers administered twenty questionnaires to youth entrepreneurs in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa to examine whether mentoring the writing of business plans plays an essential role in their entrepreneurial ventures. The results for this article reveal that most youth entrepreneurs do not receive mentoring to boost their entrepreneurial ventures, even though mentoring has been identified as necessary. The report recommends that youth entrepreneurs be mentored to promote their businesses, which will create youth economic development and employment creation in BCMM.

Keywords

• Mentoring, Entrepreneurship, Youth Empowerment, Economic Development.