Virgin Mobile targets entrepreneurs

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 16 Jan 2008

Virgin Mobile will continue to support entrepreneurship in SA, with the hope that successful business owners will grow to become its customers, it says.

Yesterday, Virgin Group chairman and CEO Richard Branson handed over a cheque for R100 000 to budding digital entertainment entrepreneurs Musa Maphongwane and Amos Ntsolongo, founders of the Starplex Gaming Zone.

The cheque was part of the first prize for the 2007 Soweto Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition, launched last year.

Virgin Mobile SA CEO Peter Boyd would not provide an update on the company's subscriber numbers, stating focus was being placed on the Branson School of Entrepreneurship that day.

However, he did note that supporting local entrepreneurs fits in with the company's ethos, as its leader, Branson, is an entrepreneur.

Supporting entrepreneurship allows Virgin Mobile to integrate its social responsibility initiatives with business activities that are core to its mission of increasing the potential impact of the activities, he said.

"Unlike Vodacom and MTN, we're small, so we have to make sure our corporate social investment is integrated into the company theme to achieve maxim impact."

Hopefully, successful entrepreneurs will invest in connectivity for their employees and use Virgin Mobile SA's services, he said.

Supporting budding entrepreneurs

The aim of the 2007 Soweto Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition is to encourage entrepreneurship among Soweto youth, explained James Wanjohi, head of the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, in the Johannesburg CBD.

Starplex Gaming Zone beat over 50 budding entrepreneurs, representing a cross-section of business sectors including ICT, hospitality, construction and marketing, for the top prize.

The first prize included a Nokia E90, a Virgin Mobile airtime package for a full year, legal assistance from Adams and Adams to protect intellectual property, and marketing assistance from The Grid, Wanjohi said.

"All the businesses submitted for consideration had to be set up in Soweto, and the competitors had to be Soweto residents and living in Soweto."

Wanjohi noted that 45 of the business plans were of superior quality, making the judging process very difficult.

The top 10 competitors are to go into a mentorship programme at the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, where they will be assisted to develop a good business plan, he said.

An investment committee will evaluate their plans at the end of the year to decide whether to grant them the funding they need to launch their businesses, he added.