This year, North-West University (NWU) students showed their mettle during the on-campus qualifying round of the 2023 Hult Prize competition.

This international competition challenges young people to solve the world’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship. Every year, the best team globally receives $1 000 000 in funding to make their idea a reality.

Local municipalities in North West have not achieved clean audit reports due to the mismanagement of financial resources. This is according to a research study conducted by Dr Auchalie Mothupi in his PhD studies at the North-West University (NWU).

The title of Dr Mothupi’s thesis was “Developing an accountability framework to enhance management of local municipal finance in the North West Province”.

Contrary to the consensus view expressed by many economists that the repo rate would be raised by only 25 basis points (bsp) on 30 March, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) decided by a 3:2 vote to raise interest rates again by 50 bsp.

In commenting on the decision to increase the repo rate, Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, says the MPC majority view sees the risks to inflation on the upside – shaped by both domestic and global factors.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management (IPS & HRM) recently hosted an academic networking brunch with academics from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), WITS University and the University of Pretoria.

The purpose of the event was to build research collaborations, get more moderators and examiners, and to ensure that the school benchmarked well against other universities.

North-West University (NWU) master’s student in economics Sphesihle Thusini was announced second runner-up in the postgraduate category of the 2022 Nedbank & Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition and walked away with R50 000.

For the 2022 competition, postgraduates were asked to submit an essay, evaluating the impact of public infrastructure investment on economic growth based on South Africa's post-2000 experience. They were also asked to discuss this impact on the prospects for economic growth in the medium term.

Operational risk has been identified as the primary source of reputational risk for South African banks. This is according to new research by Prof Suné Ferreira-Schenk, Finance and Investment professor at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the North-West University (NWU).

Though banks have been subject to operational risks for decades, there are compelling reasons to anticipate that operational risk will only increase in the future as regulators demand greater transparency and banks rely more on increased digital technology automation.

The North-West University (NWU) kicked off the student entrepreneurship season with bootcamps on the Vanderbijlpark and Potchefstroom campuses on 15 and 16 February.

Volunteers from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, NWU Business School, Technology Transfer and Innovation Support Office (TTIS), and bhive Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) presented the bootcamps, which were sponsored by the TTIS.

These bootcamps comprise a two-day programme on how to develop an idea or solution into a social or commercial business and pitch it to investors.

A proposed three-year deal by the Department of Tourism and SA Tourism to sponsor English Premiership club Tottenham Hotspur has caused widespread consternation and has received plenty of condemnation in what many deem an ill-thought venture.

According to Prof Peet van der Merwe from the research unit TREES (Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society) at the North-West University (NWU), this amount could have been better used for other tourism purposes.

Senior Lecturer and Chartered Accountant in the School of Accounting Sciences within the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Mr. Kurt Naicker, has recently won the award for the best slogan against Anti-Gender Based Violence.

His slogan that was chosen as the winning entry was:

"You always have a choice never choose violence, raise your hand in solidarity against vulnerable victims and end this vicious cycle.”

’tis the season to be jolly, but many a South African will feel more trepidation than delight as the celebrations of the festive season loom. These South Africans are shackled by the chains of reckless spending and unsound financial advice. Including by friends and family, they will be visited by the Fiscal Ghost of 2022 Past, but – to keep misquoting and paraphrasing Charles Dickens – the best of times can follow the worst of times.