Young entrepreneur used his NSFAS allowance to start business that now supplies supermarkets

Tulani Qwesha started a farm when he was just 22-years-old. Picture: Pexels

Tulani Qwesha started a farm when he was just 22-years-old. Picture: Pexels

Published Oct 16, 2023

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A business is notoriously hard to start, especially one that grows quickly and becomes successful.

This is why South Africa has the world’s highest start-up failures.

Entrepreneurs are demanded by their ventures to be tenacious, to give it all they have got.

This may include taking out loans and putting other dreams on the shelf.

However, a young entrepreneurs beat all the odds.

He is said to have saved and used his NSFAS allowance to create a farming business.

Tulani Qwesha started this gargantuan task when he was just 22- years-old and a third-year student at the University of Fort Hare (UFH).

The young man was studying Bachelor of Commerce in Economics at the time. He said he took the plunge, and it paid off.

“Growing up, I admired watching my late grandfather tend to the vegetable garden on our homestead. I knew from a young age that in order to eat, we needed to work the soil,” he told the UFH.

So, with this inspiration, he began his entrepreneurial journey and called his business, Buxton Farm Fresh.

In 2021, Qwesha went on to say that he returned home and recreated his grandfather’s garden and sowed some seeds. This proved fruitful.

“After harvesting and selling my first crop to locals, I did some research and spoke to fruit and vegetable sellers and found that there was a business opportunity to supply and deliver produce from local farmers and fresh produce markets to the retailer,” he was quoted as saying.

Qwesha purportedly took part in business management training programmes, including one supported by the National Youth Development Agency.

He stated that his intention is to cultivate his own crops to offer to merchants, and that in order to do so, he will need funds to obtain the necessary instruments and resources, such as an irrigation system, thus the present business initiative.

Qwesha urged other young people not to be frightened to act in desperation and to think about what they want before going after it.

He now supplies Spar, among other retailers.

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