Online Reporter
Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
Partnerships between Government, the private sector and communities are critical to unlocking the potential of Zimbabwe’s young people and creating employment through innovation and entrepreneurship, Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training Minister Tino Machakaire has said.
Speaking at the Old Mutual Value Creation Challenge (VCC) 6 Startup Pitch Finals and Awards Ceremony in Harare last Friday, Minister Machakaire said a whole-of-society approach was required to address the country’s employment challenges and ensure young innovators had access to the support needed to turn their ideas into viable businesses.
He said initiatives such as the VCC were helping young people move beyond being job seekers by equipping them with skills and opportunities to develop businesses and create employment for others.
“We can only achieve employment when we work as a team. We need a whole-of-society approach, a whole-of-government approach and a whole-of-community approach,” Minister Machakaire said.
He commended Old Mutual for partnering with Government and supporting young Zimbabweans, urging other private-sector players to identify opportunities to work with young people and help commercialise their ideas.
Minister Machakaire said young people from both privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds should be given opportunities to present their ideas and gain access to funding, mentorship and other forms of business support.
He said failure to create pathways for young innovators could result in talented young people abandoning their ideas and becoming vulnerable to social problems.
“What we require is a lot of support so that every young person with an innovative idea can come on board,” he said.
“We do not want to leave them isolated, because they are going to perish or end up taking drugs if they do not have access to the opportunity to be heard or seen with their ideas.”
The Minister said the quality of ideas presented at the competition demonstrated that innovation was not confined to major urban centres or established businesses.
He said young people from remote areas were capable of developing solutions that could compete with, and in some cases surpass, the expectations of those supporting them.
Old Mutual Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Mr Samuel Matsekete, said the financial services group believed young Zimbabweans possessed significant innovative potential, but required the right platforms and support to transform their ideas into sustainable enterprises.
“Our youths are very innovative,” Mr Matsekete said. “Naturally, they are innovative and we believe that they need to be promoted to extract what they already have and be supported to convert their innovation and ideas into a venture—a business that starts to create value and solve real-life problems.”
He said the solutions presented by participants demonstrated the importance of encouraging young people to identify problems within their communities and develop commercially viable solutions.
Mr Matsekete said the finalists had shown that innovation could translate into businesses capable of creating value, describing their achievements as an inspiration to other young entrepreneurs.
The VCC is part of Old Mutual’s innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives aimed at identifying and supporting young people with ideas capable of addressing real-world challenges.
Through the startup pitch programme, participants are given a platform to develop, present and refine business concepts while gaining exposure to potential support and investment.
The programme comes as Zimbabwe seeks to expand opportunities for young people amid persistent employment and economic challenges, with entrepreneurship and private-sector development increasingly viewed as important avenues for job creation.
Minister Machakaire said stronger collaboration between Government and business would be essential in ensuring that promising ideas did not remain at the conceptual stage.
He called on businesses and other organisations to embrace young innovators and work alongside them to build enterprises that could contribute to national development.
He said young entrepreneurs supported through such partnerships could become employers, nation-builders and future leaders, making investment in innovation an important component of Zimbabwe’s economic development agenda.
