Inequality
Working paper
Accelerating private sector job creation and poverty reduction in South Africa’s townships
August 2022
The paper examines the underlying constraints impacting micro-enterprise growth within South African townships. The understanding broadly provides a finer and more granular understanding of the microeconomic constraints to economic growth and employment generation in South Africa. It is critical for the South Africa government to prioritize the revitalization of township economies in order to promote entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses. The findings of this paper reveal that township entrepreneurs encounter the challenges of lack of access to funding, markets, awareness of government initiatives, poor financial management, lack of management competencies, poor infrastructure, crime, and lack of information.