Young Entrepreneurs from Hull have successful visit to South Africa

A delegation of young entrepreneurs from Hull has returned from taking part in South Africa’s largest entrepreneurial event, the Hook up Dinner and Demo Africa.  During the visit young entrepreneurs met enterprising young people in the townships outside Johannesburg as well as visiting a number of highly successful enterprise hubs that operate in the Gauteng Region.

During the visit, young entrepreneurs Thomas Arran, Kit Hargreaves and Haggai Mwiko, made successful contacts with South African entrepreneurs and plan to look at future opportunities as well as agreeing to support the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank in supporting enterprising young people in Johannesburg and surrounding townships through the Hook up Dinner, Biz Kidz South Africa and Beyond the Lemonade Stand.

Maureen Foers OBE - Chair John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank

“It was a great opportunity for some of our young entrepreneurs to represent Hull at South Africa’s largest entrepreneurial event, the Hook up Dinner Event in Johannesburg, alongside representatives from the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Uganda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya, Swaziland and South Africa. As a partnership we are very proud of our youth enterprise programme and the support it gets from Hull City Council and the business community. We are pleased that positive outcomes have come out of the visit not only between entrepreneurs but also between ourselves and the Hook up Dinner."

Thomas Arran - Co Chair Hull's Let Talk Business Network and Photographer

“It was a fantastic opportunity to visit enterprising people like myself in South Africa. Having started my own business at the age of 17, with the support of Hull City Council, it was interesting to see what support young people have in South Africa, there is no doubt in my mind South Africa's young people are very enterprising"

Kit Hargreaves - Apple Pear

“From a personal point of view, I was very pleased to attend the Hook up Dinner event and Demo Africa in Johannesburg, meeting young entrepreneurs from across Africa and I look forward to developing further business opportunities with the contacts I have made. It was interesting to note that young people in South Africa face the same issues as those in the UK with lack of funding from banks and not enough people taking their dreams seriously" 

Haggai Mwiko - founder and chairman of Habby Business

"There is no doubt in my mind South Africa has a bright future, I was particularly inspired by the young people in Alexandra and Soweto townships and those that support them such as Beyond the Lemonade Stand, Biz Kidz South Africa and the Hook up Dinner. As a business I am looking forward to establishing concrete business opportunities in the UK for some of the South African entrepreneurs that I met."

Selebogo Molefe CEO - Lifesgud Global Investments (Pty) Ltd and founder of the Hook up Dinner said:

“In 2014 I visited Hull, to see how Hull City Council were supporting young entrepreneurs and the return visit by young entrepreneurs from Hull to Johannesburg was a great success. We were extremely pleased that two of our enterprise education projects, Beyond the Lemonade Stand and Biz Kidz South Africa, based in Soweto and Alexandra Townships respectively, will receive support from the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank along with local entrepreneur Kabelo Mogale for his new venture Plus News South Africa that features good news stories only.

I am delighted that with the support of Hull City Council and the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank we will be running your Make £5 Blossom Programme and delivering the Big 13 Enterprise Skills in our schools as we build up our youth enterprise Eco system”

 Further Information

1) The Hook up Dinner www.thehookupdinner.com bridges the gap by capacitating them with access to networks, education and investments into their businesses. We partner with organisations that see an economic opportunity in capacitating SME’s by helping them access our vetted community of entrepreneurs.

2) The John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank www.youthenterprise.co.uk supports enterprising young people aged 13 to 21 with a grant, a business mentor and opportunities to network and work with colleagues at Hull Youth Support Trust.

3) Beyond the Lemonade Stand is a social enterprise, whose mission is to develop a generation of South Africans that believes they are capable of achieving their dreams, not just believes but also acts on it too. The project is run by Thokoza Mjo.

4) Biz Kidz South Africa is supporting enterprise education programmes in the townships and the JCYEB is supporting it with a grant and advice on enterprise skills locally in the Alexandra Township, it is run by Siya Mtshali, founder of Young Minds Group.