By Chisomo Phiri
Deputy Vice Chancellor for Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) Professor Ishmael Kossamu has urged the youth in the country to have an entrepreneurial mindset and invest in various skillsets,so that they contribute towards the attainment of Malawi 2063 development blueprint.
Professor Kossamu said this in Blantyre on Friday during the graduation of 51 students under the MUBAS Incubation Centre.
He said it is important for youth to venture into various businesses that are innovative and in line with the Malawi Vision 2063.
Kossamu said he is happy that MUBAS is one of the institutions that are training such innovative entrepreneurs in the country through the incubation centre.
“As a university actually, we are very proud that we are producing these graduates who are going into society to make sure that they develop business ideas, create more jobs, and be in line with Malawi Vision 2063,” said Kossamu.
He added that the trainings that the incubation centre offers such as soap making, tailoring, wood work, metal work, food processing are aimed at creating jobs for the youth so that they be self-reliant.
Kossamu said in an effort to make sure that the graduates from the trainings have capital to start their own businesses, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Economic Empowerent Fund(NEEF) last month so that it provides loans to them.
“We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NEEF. The main aim of the agreement is to allow NEEF to provide loans to our graduates who want to establish their own businesses but have no capital. We believe this can contribute a lot to the country’s social-economic growth,”he said.
In an interview, one of the graduating students in food processing Wisdom Kumbukani said, the incubation centre has given him an opportunity to acquire knowledge and that now he is ready to open his own business.
Kumbukani applauded MUBAS for its efforts to give back to the society by making easy access to their facilities for every interested individual to learn from the programmes and contribute to the country’s social-economic development.
He also applauded MUBAS Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor Nancy Chitera and the whole incubation committee for coming up with the initiative.
MUBAS Incubation Centre was established in 2020 with an aim of imparting innovative and entrepreneurial skills to the masses to contribute to the social-economic development of Malawi.
Since its inception, a lot of people have benefited from the centre’s services.
