Incubating the future: Entrepreneur honoured

YOUNG entrepreneurs who are emerging through the yearly Future 100 Awards will become South Africa's future business industry captains, if they are affirmed further, empowered and nurtured.

SA Youth Chamber of Commerce (SAYCC) president and the awards' project director, Thapelo Maleke, said emerging merchants, especially those who were being discovered through the youth development activities of the chamber and the NYDA, were committed to top performance.

The top 100 young entrepreneurs were chosen from a pool of more than 5000 candidates as part of a nation-building partnerships project of the SAYCC, NYDA, Sowetan, Sunday World and BizJam. Ofentse Sebitlo is the latest top winner to be profiled by Sowetan.

His spotlight follows that of:

• Tom-Ross Fortuin who leads TRF Sport, which buys, sells, distributes and manufactures sport equipment;
  
• Rethabile Maimane who owns and runs Golden Goose Catering & Cake Decorating in Welkom;
• Buhle Dlamini, a business author and sought-after motivational speaker, who heads Young & Able;
• Kagiso Dumasi who heads West Chauffeurs together with business partner Sola Owoloja;
• Thamsanqa Maqubela, founding chairman of Qhubela Holdings; and
• Ismail Dhorat founder of Zyelabs, a provider of telecommunications-related consulting services.

Sebitlo heads Montsamaisa Bosigo, a Mmabatho-based consulting firm that mostly provides SMEs with services such as bookkeeping, business and financial administration, business feasibility studies, due diligence facilitation, business plan development and legal compliance.

Montsamaisa Bosigo is also helping with coaching and mentoring of aspirant merchants, local business managers and the education and training of business community members in information and communication technology. Their work has so far been endorsed by business industry leaders including the Small Enterprise Development Agency, M afikeng Development Zone and Productivity SA.