Justice Lebotsa is a young agritech entrepreneur, who has narrowed the gap between technology and small scale farming. Picture: Justice Lebotsa (Instagram) Justice Lebotsa is a young agritech entrepreneur, who narrowed the gap between technology and small scale farming. Lebotsa’s online company, Warm Nest Enterprise, scooped a nomination for the Top 16 Youth Owned Brand Awards. Picture: Justice Lebotsa (Instagram)
The Top 16 Youth Owned Brand Awards (Top 16 Yobas) have, for the past two years, acknowledged young South Africans who are making strides in various sectors.
Justice Lebotsa, 22, has bagged a nomination under the agriculture category this year.
The awards which honour and celebrate innovative young people within their chosen fields, will take place on June 22 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Clearly an epitome of the awards’ description, Lebotsa’s online company, Warm Nest Enterprise, has revolutionised the agricultural industry, by introducing agritech, merging technology and small scale farming.
The novice entrepreneur is delighted at his nomination which would inspire his peers:“I feel appreciated and inspired at the same time. This will not only motivate me, but inspire my fellow young entrepreneurs who find motivation in me to keep going and bring about transformation.”
The former financial call centre agent, said that growing up in a family of farmers and his love for website developing, had helped to develop his farming and technological acumen.
“I grew up in a family where farming was considered the norm, plus the passion for developing websites for fun truly advanced me to consider agritech innovation as a career,” said Lebotsa.
Although a beneficiary of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) programme, Lebotsa encountered financial challenges to start his business.
“The issue of accessing financial assistance from external organisations has been a barrier, but we keep on innovating in order to achieve our goals,” he said.
As a young entrepreneur, Lebotsa noted winning the award would establish a market footprint for his customers and future business relationships.
“Getting this award will open doors for me. Being an award winner will boost our overall image, which might help us grab more attention in the global market,” he said.
Additionally, his agritech incentive business will expose its services to a pool of small scale farmers on a national level, and create alternative sustainable solutions to curb youth unemployment.
“The most important goal is to dominate the market and be ahead of our competitors, by saying that we aim to bring more technological functions into farming in order to help small scale farmers to be familiar with modern farming. As one of the youngest entrepreneurs, I want to achieve financial sustainability ,” said Lebotsa.
Tik Tok influencers Primo Baloyi and Sipho Alfie Mkhwanazi are among the other Top 16 Yoba nominees.
The Star
hope.mafu@inl.co.za