Funding and Support for Young Entrepreneurs

Many young South Africans have good business ideas but no money to start or grow them. There is help available: grants, small loans, business training, mentors and vouchers from public bodies such as the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the Small Enterprise Development and Finance Agency (SEDFA), as well as from banks, companies and competitions. But many applications fail because they are incomplete, unclear or ask for the wrong thing, and many young people lose money to funding scams. This course explains the different types of funding and when each makes sense, how to tell whether you are ready, what NYDA, SEDFA and other organisations offer, what documents you need, how to write a clear application with a use-of-funds table, how to pitch, how to find mentors and other support, and what to do after you are approved or turned down. The course is fully online and self-paced. Each lesson has a short activity in your workbook. You finish with a practical task, in which you prepare a complete funding application, and a final assessment, and you receive a MetaCo Certificate of Completion that you can add to your CV. Funding programmes, amounts and rules change. This course describes them as they were in 2026 and shows you where to check the latest details.