21 June 2023 – Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has awarded four young entrepreneurs R100 000 each to support their start-up businesses.
This was announced at the EmpowaWorx third annual EmpowaYouth Summit, a platform established to provide skills development, investment and entrepreneurship advise and opportunities to youth.
The Summit hosted a business pitching competition, where four entrepreneurs based in Orange Farm, Gauteng, were chosen and awarded R100 000 by CCBSA’s Head of Social Transformation, Tsholofelo Mqhayi. The young people will use the funds to start their Bizniz in a Box (BiB) businesses.
Velaphi Ratshefola, Managing Director for CCBSA said: “For us, opportunity is more than just money, it’s about a better future for people and their communities everywhere on the African continent. One way we support communities is by creating inclusive growth opportunities for communities, women, and youth.”
BiB aims to create an ecosystem of viable township micro-businesses offering complementary products and services in a community, using a spaza shop as the anchor.
“Young people are integral to our continent’s shared success; therefore, we seek to empower them both in the workplace and through community programmes throughout our markets on the continent,” adds Ratshefola.
“At CCBSA, youth empowerment is central to our sustainability agenda, which is why we have adopted three pillars, namely education, employability, and entrepreneurship as a framework for our economic inclusion strategy.”
The BiB initiative was launched in 2016 to create a platform to support emerging and small businesses, particularly those run by youth and women,
in informal and rural areas.
For the last seven years, CCBSA’s BiB has contributed meaningfully towards reducing youth unemployment by partnering with national and provincial government, local municipalities and development finance institutions. These partnerships have enabled entrepreneurs to develop businesses, improve their skills, access capital, manage supply chains, and provide jobs to others.
The BiB initiative has supported over 700 entrepreneurs across several provinces, including Limpopo, Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. CCBSA has provided 758 containers – including 400 for young entrepreneurs – and spent more than R120 million on BiB-related activities.
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About CCBSA
Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) is a proudly South African company which began operating as a legal entity in July 2016, after the merger of six non-alcoholic ready to drink bottling operations. We are level 1 B-BBEE empowered company. We employ over 7000 people at 13 manufacturing facilities across the country. As a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) and a bottler for The Coca-Cola Company, our vision is to refresh Africa every day and make our continent a better place for all.
We manufacture and distribute Coca-Cola beverages that make life’s everyday moments more enjoyable, while doing business the right way. The result is shared opportunity for our customers, our employees, our communities, and our shareholders. We conduct our business ethically, transparently, and conscientiously. We espouse an inclusive business culture to reflect our African identity. We accelerate sustainable, profitable revenue growth across all categories and offer an innovative portfolio of products that respond to customer needs and consumer preferences. Profitability is important, but not at any cost. People matter. Our planet matters. We do business the right way by following our values and partnering for solutions that benefit us all.
