Minister to young entrepreneurs: Go out there and conquer Africa
MBABANE - The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Mancoba Khumalo yesterday bid farewell to a team of young entrepreneurs, who are destined to compete in Nigeria.
The young entrepreneurs are scheduled to leave the country on Monday for a three-day event that brings together pupils aged between 15-19 years from countries across Africa.
The pupils are to compete in teams for cash and prizes, in the contest of business skills, ingenuity and innovation.
It was disclosed that this year Eswatini will be represented by Sifundzani High School and will be heading to Lagos, Nigeria for the Africa Company of the Year (COY) Competition.
The JA Africa COY competition is Africa’s premier pitch competition for high schoolaged youth, who have completed the flagship JA Company Programme. The Sifundzani High school all-female pupils representative will be accompanied by their male technician Fifa Dlamini. The business model by the school is called Out (Pty) Ltd.
congratulated
Minister Khumalo congratulated the pupils from Sifundzani High School and wished them all the best and urged all emaSwati to support them by watching the competition through the JA Eswatini virtual platforms.
He said it was amazing to see the commitment of the pupils in continuing with their entrepreneurship lessons during the lockdown.
“The creation of the entrepreneurship eco-system is no more a dream as such programmes kick-start the process, where students are allowed to explore innovation while being taught the skills of running a business,” said Khumalo.
He further congratulated all the pupils for their resilience, perseverance and spirit of excellence.
“You are all champions! Go out there and conquer Africa. Bring the awards home as usual. We are indeed proud of you all,” declared the minister. The young entrepreneurs from Sifundzani High School were declared the champions of the Junior Achiever (JA) National Business Championship 2022. The victorious business was on their energy saving concept based on achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12. Their business concept simply encompasses the need to save energy by monitoring and automating the switching of devices through the use of cellphones as long as there was Wi-Fi connectivity.
completed
The minister congratulated Sifundzani High School for raising such an innovative generation within their school.
He said it gives the nation hope that the future of the country was indeed bright.
Khumalo further disclosed that this was the first physical competition post-COVID-19. H further said he was excited that Eswatini hosted the first virtual Africa competition, which was a great success and the country continued to participate throughout the COVID-19 era.
The minister was interested in the business concept of the pupils such that he would recommended their concept to the Ministry of Economic Planning for financial support.
He said he was aware of the support that had been given to the JA organisation over the years which had seen thousands of young people being supported with financial and business skills.
“The Ministry of Education and Training has played a critical role in allowing this programme to be implemented in 85 high schools and 20 primary schools in the current fiscal year,” said Khumalo. He said this had impacted at least 10 000 pupils with positive skills for their future.
He further thanked the head teachers, facilitators and parents for supporting the pupils and ensuring that they do this programme with great commitment and excellence.
He further said he was appreciative to Standard Bank Eswatini for their continued support in this competition as they sponsored the pupils’ return airplane tickets to Nigeria.
Khumalo said this year’s JA Africa COY competition theme is ‘Felling Change Makers”.’
InspIred
“It is inspired by the mandate JA Eswatini has which is to fuel all those bringing the right and much-needed change to succeed,” said Khumalo.
He further shared that Sifundzani High School had embraced the theme and had created a much-needed product that timed out all appliances in your absence.
He said this product spoke to the change we humans were looking for, in making lives easier. Meanwhile, Ministry of Education and Training Representative Martha Shongwe said Sifundzani High school being the national winner, qualified to represent the Kingdom of Eswatini in the upcoming Africa COY competition.
She said the ministry was greatly indebted to JA Eswatini and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade for the role
they played in empowering the youth with entrepreneurial and financial literacy skills.
“As we may all be aware, in our sector-policy and guidelines we aim at delivering inclusive quality education that also embraces life-long learning, in accordance with the UN-SDG4 that is specific to Education,” said Shongwe.
However, Shongwe stated that naturally, it would take a multi-sectoral effort to successfully implement such noble policies.
Meanwhile, the Standard Bank Eswatini CEO Mvuselelo Motsa said the banks sponsored winners and he was expecting nothing short of the grand prize for the nation. Motsa said he was ready for the call to come and welcome the team with the trophy of the nation in hand.