Byo school to represent Zim at entrepreneurial expo

BULAWAYO’S Eveline High School entrepreneurial club, Remnsat Enterprises will this year represent Zimbabwe at the Junior Achievement Africa Company of the year competition to be held in Ghana in December.

The entrepreneurial club won the ticket to represent the country at the Junior Achievement Africa Company in Accra after coming tops at a national competition held at Prince Edward High School two weeks ago. The competition, which was also celebrating its 20th anniversary, attracted 12 school-based enterprises drawn from Harare, Bulawayo, Midlands and Manicaland provinces and was held under the theme: “Activating Disruptors in Africa”.

Remnsat Enterprises patron Mrs Nomathemba Takabinga said the entrepreneurial club managed to upstage its competitors through showcasing its innovative ideas aimed at encouraging the processing of traditional foods which had been previously discouraged.

“Remnsat Enterprises is encouraging the processing of the Bambara nut commonly known as roundnuts and produces Bambara nut flour, which they then use to bake cookies. Bambara nuts contain several nutrients which are carbohydrates, proteins, oil and other minerals. I have always believed in the girls and the product, which at one stage was banned by health authorities and I was hopeful that they were definitely going to win the competition,” she said

One of the group members, Sandile Mwandambo said the club was looking forward to marketing their cookies beyond the school campus.

“We faced quite a number of challenges due to the ever-rising prices of commodities and time constraints due to other school-related activities but the lessons we learnt during the programme were far reaching as we managed to value the importance of teamwork, decision making, and risk taking. We are also working on expanding our production from selling only at school to the general public,” she said.

The club’s business mentor, Mr Jobert Ngwenya, said the competition would go a long way in imparting to the students the requisite business literacy.

“The Junior Achievement Zimbabwe is doing a great job in preparing the learners for the uncertain future through entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy and work readiness. Entrepreneurship education is the key to the future as it helps the learners develop the 21st century critical skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication and creativity,” he said.