The innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) turned into a cauldron of entrepreneurial excellence on Thursday, 22 May 2025 as budding entrepreneurs from DUT, UKZN and the wider community jostled for entrepreneurial supremacy during the YAEI x ABSA Youth Innovation Challenge 2025.
Brought to the doorstep of aspirant entrepreneurs’ courtesy of collaborative efforts by the Young African Entrepreneurs Institute (YAEI), banking giant Absa and the innobiz DUT Centre, the competition saw close to 40 upcoming entrepreneurs converge in the Centre’s state-ofthe-art Innovation Hub at Indumiso Campus to pit their entrepreneurial wits against each other.
At stake in the fierce competition, open to entrepreneurs between ages 18 and 35, was a place in the KZN top 10 aspiring entrepreneurs who will represent the province against 80 other contestants from the rest of the country’s provinces at the National Finals in Johannesburg later in 2025 with main goal to make into the prestigious Emerging 50 YAEI x Absa Incubation Programme.
The eager contestants braved the Pietermaritzburg winter chill and showed determination in their quest to take their business dreams to the next level through a dynamic journey packed with inspiration, innovation, and opportunity while driving innovation and social change.
Entrepreneurs took to pitch their businesses for five minutes in front of a panel of three judges consisting of representatives from innobiz DUT, YAEI and Absa. Three minutes were set for the entrepreneur to put their best foot forward in selling their pitch to the judges, with the additional two minutes shelved for the judges to probe the entrepreneur’s pitch.
Mr Linda Hasi, Chief Innovation Officer at YAEI, explained that the Youth Innovation Challenge was a doorway for upcoming entrepreneurs to get into the fabled Emerging Innovators Programme.
“This is a fund programme this year, through VISA and Absa and it is called the Emerging
Innovators Fund. When we were in Limpopo the participants of the Emerging 30 received R165 000 direct investment into their businesses,” Mr. Hasi explained, much to the approval of the guests and participants.
Quite significantly, Mr Hasi emphasised that there was a collective commitment from the government, institutions of higher learning, and private sector to support innovators.
He said that these key stakeholders had been buoyed by the belief that entrepreneurship and innovation were at the fulcrum of bringing the much-needed societal change through entrepreneurial programmes such as the Youth Innovation Challenge.
Ms Nontokozo Ngcobo, the innobiz DUT Centre Manager, engaging with the participants of the YAEI x Absa Youth Innovation Challenge 2025 held at Indumiso Campus on Thursday.
Speaking on the significance of initiatives such as the Youth Innovation Challenge, Ms Nontokozo Ngcobo, innobiz DUT Centre Manager, said that it was primarily a great platform for the student entrepreneurs to collaborate and network with their entrepreneurial counterparts from the sister university in UKZN and wider community.
“It’s not only the resources that we have now as DUT that we are now using to capacitate and ensure that these businesses are holistically prepared for the business world, but we are being joined by other partners like Absa and YAEI is a great platform for us to be exposed and learn more through practice of these pitches that they are doing,” Ms. Ngcobo asserted.
The collaborative effort also aligns well with the ethos espoused in DUT’s guiding light, the ENVISION2030 roadmap, which calls for the University to be a society that leads to mutually beneficial collaborations while also being engaged and productive “glocal” citizens that establish mutually beneficial partnerships.
Further highlighting the importance of collaborations, Ms. Ngcobo said that the analogy “it takes a village a child” was apt to describe the work of the partnership between YAEI, Absa and DUT because in business it took a strong ecosystem to establish and develop a holistic entrepreneur.
“The more ecosystem partners who come, the better for us because it really needs a lot of points to support these students that we are working with, especially because the entrepreneurship programmes that we have are competing for their attention with the academic programme.
“Therefore, having hands-on and practical approaches like this one really helps because their exposed to variety and their mindset is being transformed into being entrepreneurial,” Ms. Ngcobo detailed.
Touching on the integration of the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme (YEP) into the
University’s curricula or extracurricular activities to foster entrepreneurship among students
Mr Thintani Dlamini, innobiz DUT Business Support Coordinator, said that the YAEI x Absa Youth Innovation Challenge aligned perfectly with the University’s drive to become a fully entrepreneurial institution.
“The response of the students to such initiatives has been positive, and that is clear in the eagerness of the students to participate in this programme.
“They are quite excited because when we talk about entrepreneurship, I believe that our students are very passionate in terms of aligning themselves with what is happening around the globe. This stems from an understanding that unemployment is skyrocketing and that is why I believe our students are passionate about starting their own businesses so that they create jobs for themselves and other students,” Dlamini explained.
The student entrepreneurs also shared their experience of participating in the Youth Innovation Challenge, with Ms Ntokozo Nkosi, an innobiz DUT incubatee and founder and owner of Nkosi Natural Beauty Products, gushed about experience labelling it as “nothing but great”.
“I’ve met my fellow competitors, pitched the business and although I was initially scared, I gained my composure as time went by and I was able to pitch the business well, covering everything in the allocated time and also answer the questions asked by the judges,” Nkosi said.
She said that she was inspired to take on the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme and seize opportunities such as those availed by YAEI x Absa as it helped connect budding entrepreneurs to investors and gain experience in the demanding entrepreneurial world.
“As much as I have experience based on my business, I felt that I also needed to be exposed to judges and gain experience based on their feedback and the market,” Nkosi explained.
Additionally, Nkosi said that the Youth Innovation Challenge had opened her mind to other aspects of her businesses such as the uniqueness of the product while she acquired practical skills including boldly standing in front of an audience and confidently pitching her business.
Another innobiz DUT incubatee, Ms Londiwe Gumede, the founder and Managing Director of
Pikankani Ceiling, Partition and Bulkhead Specialist, said that pitching session at the Youth Innovation Challenge was an eye opener and proved to her that there was constantly room for learning for student entrepreneurs.
“I have learned that as an entrepreneur you need to have confidence in what you are telling the judges, and that comes from doing thorough research on your product and customers because not everybody likes you as a person likes, so when servicing people you need to understand what is it that your clients actually need,” Ms Gumede shared.
The entrepreneurial festivities continue today (23 May 2025) with the YAEI x Absa Youth Entrepreneurship Tour Financial Inclusion Symposium hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Pictured: Student entrepreneurs during the competition.
Samkelo Mtshali
