daniel chigunweRejoice Makoni
Herald Correspondent
Emergination Africa has launched the fourth edition of the national business case competition which is one of the biggest competitions in primary and secondary education in terms of equipping them with entrepreneurial education.
The business case competition was launched on Tuesday in Harare.
EA’s country manager, Farai Mushawasha said the finals will be held in Bulawayo and the winning team will walk away with $5 000 to start their business.
“We are solving the problem that not only Zimbabwe is facing but the entire continent, which is looking at youth, and young people, and employment. So really our solution was, why don’t we help young people start businesses? And by young people, we thought of starting as early as high school.
“And part of it involves what our model has become, which involves the whole ecosystem in the education space where we work together with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to introduce entrepreneurship in high schools,” he said.
“We also work with them on capacity development through training programmes on how they can also go back and work with the high school students on how to start business ventures.”
Mr Mushawasha said the competitions were in line with the Education 5.0 philosophy.
“This is the fourth year running across the entire country, where we are now asking learners to submit their concept. So, across the country, in all provinces, our schools come up with small teams that work on a venture, on an idea, on a solution that they then present to a school, but from there they submit to us as Imagination Africa. A panel goes through the entire process of selecting the top ventures that are then identified from each province.”
Westridge student representative Tamara Joseph thanked EA for bringing such an initiative that gives them entrepreneurial knowledge.
Programmes manager Ms Tendai Dzinoreva said it was important to note changing trajectory of education where we are moving from theory to practical aspect of education.
“EA is really focused on is leveraging on innovation discourse that is going on globally and also on entrepreneurial education, which seems to be a really huge highlight for education in the 21st century,” she said.
“Thirteen ventures have been accelerated to date.
“So really the goal for Imagination Africa is to scale, have as many, 360 ventures accelerated not only Zimbabwe, but across Africa by 2027.”
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