When we think of city dreams, or imagine that big city life, often our thoughts lead us overseas. Places like New York, Los Angeles, Paris or Milan. However, our Mother City has proven that African creativity coupled with entrepreneurial passion has us streaks ahead of other world class locations.
A recent index compiled by Dojo confirmed the exciting news.
Their units of analysis were based on:
- New business registered.
- The cost of a business start up as a percentage of GNI per capita.
- GDP per capita.
- Percent of the population with access to education.
- And online searches of how to start a business.
- Ranking third in the whole word, Cape Town was also crowned as a top supportive hub for new businesses.
- We scored at 384 out of 500 on the index.
“Home to many of Africa’s most innovative designers and artists, creativity flourishes amongst the natural beauty and sprawling mountains of the city,” Dojo wrote.
Other contributing factors toward our position includes:
- Incredibly low costs in a globally comparative sense, for those looking to start up a business.
- A strong SME presence. In SA, SMEs employ roughly 70%-80% of working people (Invest Cape Town) with Cape Town formulating a large part of this.
- Competitions and initiatives in the city like the FNB Enablis Business Plan.
- Focus on the youth such as the Junior Achievement South Africa project, which has programmes directed at youth entrepreneurship.
Additionally, we can’t ignore the fact that creatives played a huge role in this achievement. From our fashion industry, to designers and artists, the Mother City has seen creativity flourish in a business focused manner. The proof is truly in the Cape Town baked pudding.
Picture: Unsplash