Agriculture and logistics are two critical sectors that are important for SA’s economic future and whose stability shapes the country’s long-term prospects.
Agriculture spans more than 96-million hectares and supports SA’s role as a leading exporter, yet deep structural barriers hold back its full potential.
Recently released data from Statistics SA showed that agriculture had a 1.1% rise in the third quarter of 2025 and its annual contribution to SA’s GDP in 2024 was 2.8%.
Logistics, which contributes 10% to 12% of GDP, moves the goods that keep the economy functioning, though inefficiencies continue to undermine its competitiveness.
The success of both sectors matter to the legacy of SA and both need capable, well-supported entrepreneurs to strengthen them from within.
That’s why Metropolitan focused the 2025 edition of its Collective Shapers programme on backing entrepreneurs in these two essential sectors, helping them grow their businesses, create jobs, and build a lasting future for themselves, their communities, and SA.
Growth of Metropolitan Collective Shapers
Established in 2021, Metropolitan’s Collective Shapers has positioned itself as an intentional engine for sector-level capability building, growing from a single-industry focus in regional editions to supporting multiple sectors nationally.
“The move to a national footprint in 2025 signals a programme that understands scale differently: not in the number of graduates it produces, but in the systemic pressure points it helps relieve,” says Lindiwe Gumede, Metropolitan’s chief marketing officer.
The Collective Shapers programme blends investment funding with technical coaching, market access, and accredited skills training to strengthen the fundamentals that keep small enterprises alive.
It also offers targeted soft-skills development, providing practical training in leadership, communication, confidence-building, and everyday financial decision-making that boosts day-to-day business performance.
Metropolitan’s Collective Shapers recognises that real entrepreneurial support goes beyond encouragement. It begins with competence, which means bringing in the right sector-specific skills to provide disciplined business practices, giving the entrepreneurs tools to ensure the continuity of their business through the right protection and financial planning.
It is strengthened by credibility that is built through access to markets, formal training, and the confidence to operate in more demanding environments.
Participants don’t just receive capital; they are guided in how to apply it effectively, how to present themselves to markets, and how to build a business that can survive shocks.
The programme’s online masterclasses, which have reached more than 800 entrepreneurs to date, suggest the hunger for structured support is far greater than the national infrastructure currently provides.
The overlooked foundation: mental resilience, financial planning and protection
Many of the young founders of businesses shoulder immense financial pressure, uncertainty and isolation; often without the emotional tools to navigate them.
Metropolitan’s Collective Shapers programme places mental resilience at the centre of the entrepreneur’s development journey. Not only does this holistic approach alleviate pressure on the entrepreneur but speaks to Metropolitan’s promise of being a life-long partner for every stage of your life.
From this foundation, the programme reinforces the disciplines that keep a business sustainable. Protection and planning are often overlooked in the early stages of an entrepreneurial venture, yet they determine whether a business can survive disruption.
Metropolitan’s financial solutions, ranging from life and disability cover to business continuity support through solid financial planning, help safeguard the people, assets and liquidity that underpin a fast-growing enterprise. And as those entrepreneurs rise, they take others with them.
“This is more than Metropolitan’s belief in the power of ‘Together We Can’. This is a collective journey towards progress. And the entrepreneurs that we support are passionate about success but crucially lift others as they rise,” says Gumede.
Collective approach to building enduring legacy
With Metropolitan’s Collective Shapers, the idea of legacy takes an immediate and practical form. It shows up in an entrepreneur’s ability to feed their families, protect their growing business and positively impact their communities.
Legacy, however, is not carried by the entrepreneurs alone. Metropolitan’s policyholders also play a role in shaping the country’s economic future.
By investing in protection and long-term planning, they help create a more stable financial base. One that enables households to stay financially steady, reduce vulnerability in the broader system and, ultimately, support the same communities where these entrepreneurs operate.
In this way, policyholders and entrepreneurs participate in a shared form of progress: one reinforces the other.
When entrepreneurs are supported with protection, capability and access to markets, and when policyholders strengthen their own financial foundations, legacy becomes a collective outcome.
As Metropolitan puts it: “Together We Can”.
This article was sponsored by Metropolitan.
