The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Gazelles Programme is rolling out a national student entrepreneurship promotion programme (SEPP) in a bid to promote student entrepreneurship.
The Zimbabwe National Gazelles Programme, which was launched in 2020, is a flagship programme that aims at identifying and accelerating high growth of entrepreneurial Small to Medium Enterprises selected from all the country’s 10 provinces.
The project is being supported by Government and social partners through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development in line with Vision 2030. In an interview, Zimbabwe National Gazelles Programme marketing manager Ms Faith Ben said they have kick-started a national student entrepreneurship promotion programme.
“The first event took place today (Saturday) at Mazowe High School, a Salvation Army Church boys boarding school, a renowned learning institution. The programme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among students in all the 10 provinces of the country.
“The event’s objective is to spur entrepreneurship mindset among the youths and then guide them on how to select a business idea by each of the attendees and the actual implementation steps of creating and growing a business,” said Ms Ben.
She said the event was mainly focused on training students on how to be entrepreneurs, thus creating and growing their own businesses. Ms Ben said with a minimum of four coaches who will do presentations, Zimbabwe National Gazelles Programme will visit a school and undertake a one-day training event.
She said topics of the day would be delivered by various experts who include chartered accountants, certified coaches, university lecturers and business mentors, among others.
“At the end of the training an entrepreneurship competition will take place and the best two results will be selected.
These two will be part of a national competition that will take place resulting in the selection of the 2022 Student Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Ms Ben said some of the issues covered include introduction of the Kukura Business Accelerator (KBA) and what they do, what a business is, understanding accounting and costing -from a start-up position, characteristics of successful businesses, understanding marketing plan and what is a business plan among others.
She said their aim was to get students started on the road to financial freedom by attending the entrepreneurship course targeted at creating tomorrow’s game changers.
“Students will learn how to start their own business from scratch and for the Top 5, we will assist them to start a real business within a period of three months.
They will be taught basic entrepreneurship concepts. They will be made aware of practical business ideas, be assisted to create a simple business plan and its relevant budget, how to market their products and services. Also, on how to save money, without value loss,” added Ms Ben.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe National Gazelles Programme is set to announce their 2022 entrepreneurial Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) intake in a bid to improve entrepreneurs’ skills.
Each business in the programme has the potential to build world-class, competitive businesses, to create new sustainable employment opportunities, to innovate and to revitalise specific industries from the ground up.
