More than 100 innovators pitch at Innovators forum

Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter

MORE than 100 innovators from 300 applications are featuring at a pitch and hackathon competition that commenced on Tuesday at the Innovators’ forum being held on the sidelines of the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).

Hosted by the ZITF and Elevate Trust, the Innovators Forum is a dynamic event that unites young entrepreneurs and innovation enthusiasts to showcase local innovations, foster business networking, and share knowledge, with a focus on revitalising industries and driving economic transformation. The event serves as a valuable platform for harnessing entrepreneurial talent.

In an interview with Sunday News on the sidelines of the forum, Director Elevate trust Mrs Sicelo Dube said this year’s forum grew as they received overwhelming applications from innovators.

“As Elevate Trust and ZITF, we are excited to have seen this forum grow from being a forum of just 30 young people to being a competitive forum where now we have to screen over 300 applications who are interested.

“We feel this is the right step towards involving the young people, inclusivity, and letting them be heard. And each category. We are to screen to over 100. We actually wanted less than 100, but we were overwhelmed. We have innovations in environment and climate, we have innovations in energy, in mind technologies, in industrialisation and in edge technologies,” said Mrs Dube.

She said the innovators forum, which is a platform bringing together young people as they are the heart of ZITF drew students from different universities while some are not at college.

“Anyone who is an innovator, bringing towards a solution towards industrialisation has been considered,” said Mrs Dube.

The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira is expected to preside over the award giving ceremony on Wednesday where successful innovators will be awarded.

Mrs Dube said the forum witnessed a smooth start where various stakeholders presented key components of entrepreneurship and innovation.

“We have had Aripo coming to talk to young people about protecting their innovations, EMA talking about the challenges that are there and the gaps that are there as well as Zimswitch coming in. We went all out about e -commerce.

“We had industry coming in to help them identify challenges and young people are hacking towards that, coming up with solutions, presenting amazing ideas and we are honored,” said Mrs Dube.

She expressed her gratitude towards ZB Bank and United Nations Development Programme for sponsoring the awards.

@nyeve14