If the solution to the problem of allocating resources to the organisations with the highest propensity to create jobs was as simple as this, such intervention would have been legislated decades ago through the tax system.
Despite generous support for angel investment by governments such as those of the UK and South Africa, investment has not been forthcoming. Based on the KPMG study cited above, 47,000 entrepreneurs received seed capital globally between 2010 and 2016 – less than €60 billion.
In a world of downsizing, automation and business process outsourcing, a job for life is a thing that my father used to talk about. Large businesses, governments and the NGO sector around the world are losing jobs, causing grinding poverty, extremism and social unrest.
Since time immemorial, humans have sought ways to build trust, thereby enabling them to transact more cheaply in their move towards specialisation and away from subsistence. This need gave rise to barter, which in turn was replaced by money.
South Africa has a chronic unemployment problem with 36% of its adult population looking for work. Like with the rest of the developing world, this is skewed towards youth unemployment and women – over 70% of rural African women under the age of 35 are either long-term discouraged or unemployed actively seeking work.
While the latest South African Venture Capital Association (SAVCA) report on Venture Capital(VC), indicates that the South African VC industry is experiencing significant growth with an encouraging rise in the number of new fund Administrative Managers, exits and deal flow, South Africa has failed dismally in funding concept-stage technology start-ups and greenfield exploration projects that Aziza Coin’s Foundation plans to assist with.
In Uganda, one of the world’s poorest economies, 65% of all jobs were created by start-ups. In Norway, which has a $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund to share between its 5 million citizens, 57% of all new jobs were created by Startups.