Zim corporates create fund to groom youth entrepreneurs

HARARE - The drive to establish a fund to assist youth entrepreneurs has excited business leaders who have pledged about US$50, 000 and furniture worth US$7, 000, for starters, to kick-start the fund-raising process.

Private and public sector executives attending the “Young Chief Executive officers (CEOs)” business forum in Inyanga last week, made the pledges as they stressed the need to boost youth-run ventures.

The proposed fund will be officially launched on a date to be advised.

The CEO Africa Round-table, a high-level platform for corporate chief executive officers, senior executives, in both private and public sector, organised the forum under the theme: “Rethinking entrepreneurship in a fast-changing world: new approaches, fresh opportunities.”

During engagements CEO Africa Round-table board member, Kenias Mafukidze, proposed that corporates must come up with a venture capital fund for young entrepreneurs.

“Why not start a fund not in tomorrow or in the near future but today. If corporates here can put something like US$50, 000 on the table it can be a foundation, which can even raise the funds to about US$100, 000 to put the young entrepreneurs dream into action,” he suggested.

Those present, including virtual participants immediately started making pledges in response and these totalled US$ about 49 000 and furniture worth US$7, 000.

Some offered their services to train entrepreneurs for free, render resource mobilisation, law expertise, technological initiatives, banking services, venture capital raising and financing assistance, among others.

He proposed that a board be set after the meeting to look at how the fund will work and formulate a structure of putting the idea into practice. Mafukidze said venture capital initiatives were critical for Zimbabwe to unlock wider economic potential among the youth.