Youth empowerment organisation, Novelty Seeking Youth (NSY), will be hosting an entrepreneurship expo, NSY Expo, on Saturday, 09 April at the Good News Ministries, Plot 6, Ironsyde in Sebokeng. Ran by three young social entrepreneurs and Activators, Molwantwa Letlhake, Xolisile Nxunya and Thilda Masenkane, NSY is bringing this event to Sebokeng as a platform for young entrepreneurs to showcase and pitch their existing business ventures and ideas to potential investors.

As members of the ACTIVATE! Change Drivers network, Letlhake, Nxunya and Masenkane are committed to their role in youth development and empowerment. ACTIVATE! Change Drivers is a network of more than 1600 young change makers or “Activators” across South Africa who are finding innovative ways to transform their communities and the country as a whole. The Network connects these young people and equips them with necessary knowledge and skills to thrive in their respective efforts.

NSY provides business/project management skills transfer workshops and business mentoring services to budding entrepreneurs. The NSY Expo will be attended by established business owners who are interested in investing in emerging entrepreneurs. Business experts will also be there to offer their view and feedback on the presented business ideas. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs will be exposed to other opportunities like referrals, mentorship and possible funding or sponsorship.

Letlhake says the aim for the expo is to revitalise entrepreneurial culture, assist young entrepreneurs by connecting them with opportunities in order to reduce social ills like unemployment and crime. “I have realised that my community does not have an existing entrepreneurial ecosystem, which contributes to the growth of unemployment rate,” he adds

Some of the experts who will be giving advice at the Expo include radio personality, Lehlohonolo Menyatso, Small Enterprise Development Agency member, Bonolo Mantsa, Renowned motivational speaker and published author Sanele Zulu, entrepreneur and radio presenter Motseki Maboye as well as  Sebokeng based entrepreneurs, Solly Montoedi and Sello Sekaja.

Letlhake, Nxunya and Masenkane admit that preparing for the NSY Expo presented a lot challenges. One of those was being snubbed by their local government support structures. However, they attribute their resilience and the skills they have acquired at ACTIVATE! Change Drivers for the success of the preparations.

“Our involvement with at ACTIVATE! Change Drivers has helped us to identify problems, experiment with ideas and validate solutions. We used several tools from the ACTIVATE! Change Drivers programmes to come up with innovative solutions to every barrier we encountered along the way,” says Nxunya

National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) applauded the three young entrepreneurs for organising Novelty Seeking Youth expo. NYDA Communications manager Nawhal Kara-Foster said: “Such initiatives that make us, at NYDA, believe that South African youth are on the right track. Entrepreneurship is one of few tools that South Africans need to really consider in moving forward. These platforms are some of the major channels for making that happen. We hope that established local businesses will invest in this promising event.”

The NSY Expo will run from 09h00 to 14h00. To participate or for more information on the NSY Expo, people can contact the organisers on 078 975 3736 or send an email to noveltyseekingyouth@gmail.com