“Entrepreneurship is solution to unemployment”

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
The role of entrepreneurship in the economic and social development of the country has often been underestimated. Over the years, however, it has become increasingly apparent that entrepreneurship does indeed contribute to economic development.

At the closing ceremony for a four-week “project management and business plan writing” course in Blantyre, Minister of Youth Development and Sports Lucius Kanyumba said formation of new business leads to job creation and has a multiplying effect on the economy.

Kanyumba observed that entrepreneurship empowers citizens, generates innovation and changes mindsets of the people.

“Entrepreneurship is important for economic growth, productivity, innovation and employment creation. It also reduces the burden that people looking after the unemployed youths,” he said.

Nycom director Aubrey Chibwana explained that the aim of the course was to build the capacity of youth organizations to effectively manage their projects and also strengthen their capacity in resource-mobilization and entrepreneurship skills.

Chibwana said one of the growing concerns among employers is that most young people lack experience for them to get a formal employment, which means they will forever be unemployed as they will have nowhere to develop the expertise necessary for a job.

Chibwana stated that the national unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 years was 9 percent with more females (10%) than males (8%) being unemployed. As of 2006, Malawi had more than 4 million young people of employable age, but only 18 percent managed to get jobs.

But the Nycom boss feared that the figures could be more than that today as more and more young people are graduating from colleges without steady employment opportunities.

“Entrepreneurship, therefore, offers young people an alternative to job scarcity while at the same time helping them gain some expertise in the various trades they will be dealing in,” said Chibwana.

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