The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
EVELINE High School entrepreneurial club, Mystery Munch Company will next year represent Zimbabwe at the Junior Achievement Africa Company of the year competition to be held in Mauritius in February.
The entrepreneurial club won the ticket to represent the country at the Junior Achievement Africa Company after producing a mystery munch, a nutritious snack that seeks to address lack of interest in eating among teenagers and the elderly.
It came out tops at a national competition held virtually on 14 December 2021 beating eight other schools from Midlands, Manicaland and Harare Metropolitan provinces.
Eveline High School educator and Junior Achievement Zimbabwe Club chaperone, Mr Jobert Ngwenya said they were glad to represent the country once again after representing it before in 2019.
“The school represented the country in Accra, Ghana in December 2019 after upstaging its competitors nationally through showcasing its innovative ideas. We are glad to be representing the country once again.
“The qualification comes at a time when the world is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic but achieving this great leap means we are in the right direction in teaching our learners resilience and diligence,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said most of the ground work that they did in this year’s company programme were during the lockdown period when schools were closed and learners were able to innovate with grit.
Mr Ngwenya said taking their inspiration from this year’s theme, “Innovation with Grit”, the Eveline High School Junior Achievement Zimbabwe Club has once again made the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province proud as they would be representing the country from 24 to 26 February 2022 in Mauritius.
He said the team was producing a mystery munch, a nutritious snack that seeks to address the challenge of lack of interest in eating among teenagers and the elderly.
“The snack bar, albeit small, is packed with nutrients that meets anyone’s daytime requirements. Made out of natural, organic ingredients, the ‘no bake’ snack is what the young and old needs today. It is indeed an innovation with grit,” he said.
Commenting on the participation in the competition, one of the learners and Mystery Munch Company chief executive officer (CEO), Vanessa Chitura said she had learnt a lot.
“Participating in the company programme allowed me to understand people differently. I was able to learn to be patient to understand that people are different and that they need to be treated differently. I also learnt the importance of being a leader, that is, being able to stand up when things are not working and rally people towards the vision of the company,” said Vanessa.
Concurring with Vanessa, the chief marketing officer (CMO), Nadia Sadiki said: “The most gratifying thing to me was seeing people appreciate the product we had made. This gave me purpose and the desire to work towards changing the world, no matter how little that could be.”
According to the Junior Achievement Africa, one of Africa’s largest organisations working on youth economic empowerment, the Junior Achievement Africa Company of the Year (COY) competition is an event meant to celebrate the entrepreneurial achievements of students from across Africa, who have completed the Junior Achievement Company Programme.
“It provides an exciting and competitive element to the programme that enhances the experience of the young people Junior Achievement works with. Through qualification rounds at national level, finalists are given the opportunity to demonstrate their business acumen, creativity and entrepreneurial thinking at the regional level.”
It said the Junior Achievement companies are evaluated by a panel of independent judges who determine company performance against the competition criteria compared to other companies.
Junior Achievement Africa said the company of the year competition was not simply a business competition for young people, but the goal was to balance the business achievements of each team as a whole with the personal development of each individual member.
The organisation added: “Therefore, in order for a team to win top awards, it is not sufficient just to run a financially successful company or to have created an exciting product or service. Company executives must also demonstrate that they understand how and why the company performed as it did.”
