By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza

Youths in Blantyre and surrounding areas have acquired entrepreneurship skills to start their own businesses and employ others courtesy of the Malawi innovation hub (mHub), a local solutions hub.

The hub has also drilled the youths in career and job creation developments through its job and business opportunity that the institution with funding from GIZ is conducting at chichiri trade fair grounds in Blantyre as part of this year’s trade fair.

Speaking on Wednesday during the opening of the exercise, technical and development manager for the organization Daniel Mvalo said they have organised the fair to prepare and expose the youths to different opportunities, including business intelligence, networking and business bench-marking.

Mvalo said the initiative gave youths an opportunity to improve their skills in business plan development.

“We train school-going youths in career development and those seeking jobs in producing good curriculum vitae. We also engage youths in entrepreneurship in business planning, “he said.

Mvalo said they asked the youths to apply for different jobs from their partners.

“Youths need such mentorship if they are to make it in life. We would like to link the youths to available job opportunities. For those that are into business, we would like to also provide them with market linkages and other information on how they can access financing and partnerships,” he said.

According to Mvalo, about 1000 youths around Blantyre are expected to benefit from a job and business opportunity fair.

One of the Blantyre based operators, Chisomo Tchona commended the exercise, saying youths were getting information on job opportunities and other services by virtue of being a youth.

“We have been empowered and have received the right information on what we can do to become productive citizens through these sessions,” she said.

She said she acquired skills on how to apply for jobs and venture into entrepreneurship.

“Many youths are struggling to get jobs, sometimes because they don’t present themselves well to employers, but the training has empowered us with skills to market ourselves to employers,” she said.

Through partnership with GIZ, mHub has been training the youth for the past year and supported business groups with grants money.