Online Reporter
Judith Phiri
Zimpapers Business Hub
THE Minister of State for Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Judith Ncube, has commended Bulawayo-based clothing manufacturing company, TICOZ Enterprise, for its youths empowerment programmes.
The programme has equipped the youths with skills, resources and opportunities to improve their livelihoods.
Speaking after touring the company’s production factory on Wednesday, the Minister said more companies should take up the initiative to empower the youths.
“TICOZ Enterprise is one of the businesses that we identified and they got an award during the Women Investment Conference because of the services that they provide. These include training the young people through the vocational approach that they have and this means a lot to the future generation,” she said.
“The youths are the future businesspeople. We need more businesspeople, especially women and the services being offered here align to that. Some of the young people here have come from rural areas as far as Nkayi, Tsholotsho, Gokwe and Mberengwa, among others.”
She said empowering the youths from rural areas speaks to the rural industrialisation drive being spearheaded by the Government under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, ensuring that no one and no place is left behind.
Minister Ncube said the skills that the youths were acquiring would enable them to effectively handle the demands, challenges and opportunities of everyday life for the rest of their lives.
“What is needed is for us to talk with those with resources to support these empowerment initiatives so that the youths could be able to start their small businesses. They will be able to grow because of the skills background they have been given here at TICOZ Enterprise,” she said.
“Of interest, there is a girl from South Africa who came for the training here to do tailoring, pattern making, cutting and finishing of all the production. She talks confidently to say that she is so happy for the opportunity she got here. As the Government, we really appreciate the role they are playing.”
TICOZ Enterprise operations director, Ms Tafadzwa Zimbudzana, said to address unemployment challenges, they are training young people at their company.
“We have a very high unemployment rate, with young people being the majority. We came up with an initiative of training young people from across the country in their factory. When they finish our training programme for six months and hire them.
“So with us being able to secure more jobs and more tenders, we can also have more orders and hire more of these students that just train them and then say we do not have jobs for you,” she said.
She said most of the girls they train are from disadvantaged backgrounds, while they have also started to welcome people coming from South Africa.
The minister was accompanied by a delegation comprising Joint Operations Command (JOC) members, Government officials and stakeholders from various sectors who are on a two-day tour of key development and legacy projects in Bulawayo.
