Chivayo lauds Govt’s youth empowerment drive

YOUTHFUL business mogul and entrepreneur Wicknell Chivayo has heaped praise on the Government’s commitment to the empowerment of locals through initiatives that promote the emergence and growth of young indigenous entrepreneurs, saying the policy thrust catapulted him into the business world and laid the foundation for his success.

Mr Chivayo’s remarks come as the country on Wednesday, February 21, 2024 celebrated National Youth Day, a commemoration of the demographic dividend considered by the United Nations as key to the sustained growth of economies, especially the ones that have many young or working-age people, between the ages of 15 and 64, participate in the mainstream economy.

The Government has implemented several youth support programmes across the country through various institutional and policy frameworks seeking to address youth development, including the National Skills Development Policy, National Youth Policy, vocational training programmes focusing on training for enterprise, and initiatives aimed at indigenisation and economic empowerment for the young people.

Born two years after Zimbabwe gained political freedom from Britain in 1980 following a protracted war of liberation, Mr Chivayo said, like many of his generation, he had the opportunity to witness the development of many economic blueprints in post-independent Zimbabwe.

“One of the most fundamental economic policies that I believe offered me an opportunity to fully demonstrate my business prowess is the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Policy, which gained momentum from around 2007. The policy was part of a wider drive by the Government to empower indigenous people to attain economic freedom. This policy dovetails with President Mnangagwa’s mantra, “nyika inovakwa nevene vayo”.

“I would say this policy catapulted me to the business world, as I saw a niche opportunity in the renewable energy market in Zimbabwe in or around 2008, which gave birth to the establishment of Intratrek Zimbabwe as we know it today.

“Intratrek became the first indigenous and locally owned company that introduced the concept of large-scale solar photovoltaic power stations in Zimbabwe. It is in consideration of the need to empower young, black, indigenous Zimbabweans that as founder and Managing Director of Intratrek, we managed to participate in Government tenders in the renewable energy sector.

“Intratrek won multi-million US dollar contracts in the energy sector after demonstrating local capacity to develop the economy by increasing power supply,” Mr Chivayo said in an interview yesterday.

The youthful business maverick went on saying it was on the strength of “our Government’s policy on internal capacity utilisation and empowerment of locals that I had the opportunity to venture into various other businesses in the agriculture and food security value chains, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and construction industries.

“Intratrek has grown from a company born out of excellent Government policy to a conglomerate having a presence across sub-Saharan Africa particularly in Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya.

“As the Intratrek Group of Companies, we now boast of being a leading renewable energy solutions company in Southern Africa with a multi-million dollar turnover. The group’s business across the borders of Zimbabwe has also diversified into real estate, hospitality services and petroleum business where we export fuel in the SADC region”.

Mr Chivayo stressed that the success of the Intratrek Group of Companies was largely attributable to homegrown policies and support for the business environment created by the Government of Zimbabwe, which have encouraged the involvement, nurturing and preference of local, indigenous, and young Zimbabweans.

“Under the able leadership of H.E. President Mnangagwa, the Government has implemented the National Development Strategy (NDS) I (to be followed by NDS II), which envisions Zimbabwe being an upper-middle income economy by 2030.

“This Policy emphasises inclusive and shared growth, particularly for youth and women empowerment and increased participation in the mainstream economy”.

He said the policy also recognises the importance and centrality of guaranteed power supply to the economy, which has developed in terms of infrastructure development, mining and agriculture.

“Intratrek is therefore geared to complete the construction of the 100MW Gwanda solar project to become the first solar plant of such capacity in Zimbabwe. Intratrek Zimbabwe also remains committed to partnering with the Government in providing various developmental solutions in the agriculture, pharmaceutical, construction and petroleum sectors,” Mr Chivayo said.