Young Zimbabweans looking into the future

HOPEFUL entrepreneurs seeking an investment to start and grow their businesses on Thursday pitched their business plans in Harare, Chiredzi and Bulawayo as part of a four-months program aimed at equipping young people in Zimbabwe to create opportunities for themselves and others.

Eight entrepreneurship teams representing eight high schools from across Zimbabwe have been selected to compete in the finals of the program dubbed Virtual Innovation Accelerator.

Each of the teams will receive €5,000 to realise their business ventures, a venture which will be made possible through support of their teachers and digital advisors.

On Thursday, the eight teams being, Oriel Boys High School, Nyatsime College, Northlea High School, Hippo Valley High School, Mzingwane High School, Queen Elizabeth High School, St Dominic’s Chishawasha and Manama High School, pitched their business venture ideas before a panel of judges.

The judges panel consisted of past president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Sifelani Jabangwe, managing and creative director of Glen Agric Africa Tsungi Banga, Jessica Espinoza – founder of XOCO, an inclusive edtech venture and a fellow at Columbia eLab, Nicolai Andersen – the Managing Partner for Consulting at Deloitte Germany and head of the Southern Africa Department at the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH Professor Matthias Rompel.

Thursday’s pitch day resembled the Emmy Award winning show, Shark Tank, which has been the launching pad for some of the greatest products ever sold.

Oriel Boys High School pitched a Biogas Energy venture, Nyatsime College presented an Avocado Seed Tea, Northlea High School pitched Fruit juice produced from local baobab fruit, Hippo Valley High School thrus their weight behind a multipurpose small grains shelling machine venture.

Mzingwane High School presented value prepositions and prototypes in the area of Tomato processing, Queen Elizabeth High School pitched biodegradable diapers as an environmentally friendly product, St Dominic’s Chishawasha presented an online health care platform and Manama High School Marula Seed Processing.

Queen Elizabeth School who pitched a Biodegradable diapers venture were adjudged to be the best venture operating. The school team also won the best project road map and the best problem statement understanding.

Emergination Africa founder Taku Machirori said with 60 percent of Africa’s jobless being youths, aged 18 – 35, the Virtual Innovation Accelerator is an opportunity for Emergination Africa in partnership with Deloitte Consulting GmbH to accelerate National Business Case Competition (NBCC) student entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe so they can create economic opportunities in their communities through innovative ventures aligned to the SDGs.

“The annually held NBCCs, which are sponsored by the ZB Bank, laid a solid foundation for this accelerator programme,” Machirori said.

“This exciting and entrepreneurship focussed programme will see eight NBCC student entrepreneur teams receive €5,000 each to implement their business ventures, and in the process, realise their path along the education to employment and employment creation highway.”

“Our purpose as Emergination Africa is to advance Africa’s prosperity by curating real-world bespoke career readiness curriculums, teacher training, competitions and virtual classrooms such as the currently running Virtual Innovation Accelerator (VIA) programme,” he continued.

“We know that our dream is big and a real game changer for Africa, so we seek and value contributions that are geared towards achieving this vision from all our stakeholders, including our facilitators, advisors, judges, teachers and Volunteers for VIA,” he added.

Nyatsime College deputy headmaster Albert Maruta said the program was a “practical approach to problem solving and we hope that it will bring a mindset change that will cascade into all schools and equip young people to contribute to economic growth.”