A small business in a small city, Khayelitsha, which uses bicycles to deliver chronic medication, has earned its owner a spot on the Forbes Magazine’s 30 under-30, Africa’s best young entrepreneurs list. This is due to Sizwe Nzima (21), who graduated from the local Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development last year. Nzima, who understands entrepreneurship as a way to combat social issues, came up with the idea after hearing about the overcrowding at public health facilities. He noted that many of the people affected are able-bodied and sometimes have to waste time that could have been spent at work. Nzima employs four men to criss-cross Khayelitsha by bicycle, collecting and delivering chronic medication from public hospitals and clinics and delivering it to the clients’ doorstep on prescribed dates. Clients are asked to pay a minimum R10 fee per collection. Nzima started off with two clients – his grandparents – but now has more than 250 and hopes to expand his idea nationally. “The response from the community has been great,” he declared. “My clients appreciate the privilege of their medication and other things being delivered while they’re busy with their own responsibilities. Some old people really feel that they are taken care of, considering their critical health problems.” Forbes called it an “innovative enterprise”.“Young people are the most powerful group of people in the country because they have all the power to change the world into what they want it to be,” Nzima says.
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