By Sylvester Kumwenda
The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture has challenged young innovators to nurture their ideas into solutions capable of addressing the country’s challenges.
Principal Secretary responsible for administration, Mischeck Munthali, made the remarks on Tuesday in Mponela, Dowa in an interview after opening a two-day onboarding and orientation of successful applicants for the Youth Innovation Fund (YIF).
“We are receiving different business ideas and innovations from the youth, and this is tier one because they are at an ideation stage. The idea is to orient and train them on how to grow their ideas into big profitable businesses and innovations for this country.
“We believe that after the two days, they will go home with an even better, polished idea. That is why we are calling this an incubation workshop,” he said.
During the two days, the young innovators, drawn from the central and northern regions of the country, will share ideas, brainstorm, and undergo tutorship to sharpen and strategize their ideas into businesses.
Munthali was hopeful that some of the ideas would graduate into tier two and tier three, which are at higher funding levels.
He said the youth have proven that they can develop innovative ideas which can feed into the Malawi 2063 agenda, which he described as youth-centric.“If these ideas are sharpened and funded, the youth can transform themselves, the communities they are coming from, and eventually collectively transform this country.
“And if you ask me, a lot of sponsors must jump into sponsoring these ideas for us to realize the Malawi 2063 agenda,” Munthali said.
National Youth Council of Malawi Executive Director Rex Chapota said the participants presented bright ideas which can push the Malawi 2063 agenda in the areas of agriculture, tourism and manufacturing.
“Beyond this orientation, we will place them in different incubation centers, find them mentors who can help them turn their ideas into action, and afterwards, give them seed capital so that they can start putting their ideas into a business model,” he said.
One of the youths, Ellen Nkhoma from Lilongwe, said the orientation will help turn her ideas into reality.
“My idea is into sustainable agriculture. When I was applying for this Youth Innovation Fund, it was just an idea. But my participation here will help me in mindset change and also turn my idea into action, so I can develop myself, my fellow youth and the nation at large,” said Nkhoma, who also envisions establishing a biogas energy production company.
Another youthful innovator from Lilongwe, Robert Khobwe, said one of the challenges facing the country is energy.
He said he was hopeful his ideas on energy production would be nurtured through the fund to address this challenge.
