Smedi awards successful local businesspersons
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute (Smedi) on Friday awarded some of the successful and inspirational business persons in the country.
The awardees were nominated by the Association of Business Journalists (ABJ) and Small and Medium Enterprise Association (Smea) in 2014.
The awardees included business mogul Thom Mpinganjira, who is chief executive officer of FDH Financial Holdings Limited, the parent company of FDH Bank, Jimmy Korea Mpatsa, founder and chief executive officer of Mpatsa Holdings, former cabinet minister Sidik Mia, owner of S&A Cold Storage in Blantyre and entrepreneur Mike Chilewe of Mikes Trading.
Others are Mike Mlombwa, owner and chief executive officer of Countrywide Car Hire, who is also president of Indigenous Businesses Association of Malawi (Ibam) and the late Aleke Banda, former cabinet minister and executive chairperson of Nation Publications Limited (NPL).
Speaking on behalf of the awardees, Mpinganjira said he has managed to succeed in business because of perseverance.
“Success in business is possible and if you want to succeed learn to persevere. Business has never been easy and it will not be easy, therefore, let us persevere,” said Mpinganjira, who is also the board chairperson for Smea.
He urged government to create a platform on which successful entrepreneurs can speak and motivate people who want to embark on an entrepreneurship journey.
“People read books or get consultancies on entrepreneurship. But usually it is important for potential entrepreneurs to hear directly from successful businesspeople on what business is all about and on how they can succeed,” said Mpinganjira.
Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwanamvekha thanked Smedi for coming up with the idea to award successful businesspeople, saying this will motivate other entrepreneurs to work hard.
“These awards will play a big role in the business sector as they will encourage many entrepreneurs to work hard so that they should be recognised,” he said.
Mwanamvekha said Malawians should be dedicated when running small and medium enterprises (SMEs) because they are important for economic development and growth.
He said successful countries such as China have reached where they are now because of SMEs.
