DURBAN - Manufacturing, agriculture and education are the top three industries that South African entrepreneurs according to the SME Landscape report called An Assessment of SME Landscape: Challenges, Opportunities, Risks & Next Steps' 2018/2019.
Nobuhle Hlangoti, a research analyst for In On Africa said that some of the reasons that entrepreneurs are looking to expand into those industries could include government placing importance on the growing the agriculture sector, investments in the manufacturing sector and the move to use e-learning services in the education industry.
Here are the reasons why agriculture, manufacturing and education are sectors that entrepreneurs are showing interest in.
Agriculture
According to Hlangoti, Political and economic developments in the country push entrepreneurs to move into this sector. The factors of the factors that could have sparked an interest in agriculture is government committing to create around 1 million jobs in this sector.
Manufacturing
Owners of SME's wanting to be involved in the manufacturing sector because of there has been a lot of investments in this industry according to Hlangoti. An example of this is the R50 million automotive industry mega-development in Rosslyn, Pretoria. Hlangoti said that the manufacturing sector can create more income and job opportunities.
Education and technology
Hlangiti believes that the allure of expanding into education and technology can be credited to the growing need for a strong education sector to produce the skilled workers that are essential to economic development and the necessary use of technology to achieve sustainable technology.