Five creatives get business funding

The gods have smiled on five artists who have received seed funding worth K1 250 000 each as a business start-up under the Sula Business Incubation Programme for Malawian artist.

The five selected artists are Enelless Pemba in arts and craft, Mabuchi Chikuse in audio production, Deborah Khonyongwa in theatre production, Edward Nyamwera in stone sculpture and Isaac Misoya in film production. 

They were selected from 20 other artists who participated in the programme after presenting compelling business plans. The initiative is championed by the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Malawi in partnership with the Music in Africa Foundation (Miaf).

In an interview yesterday, Sula Creative Hub manager Odala Balamu Banda said the business incubation programme is supporting business start-ups that offer arts-related products and services to enable them to contribute to the creative industry’s socio-economic development.

He said the programme presents one of a few opportunities that provide business training and funding to Malawian artists. He said five more artists are expected to benefit from the initiative which will run for a year.

“We had funding for a year, so its continuity will be based on funding. The programme is vital in terms of professional training for artists to support their businesses. Some of the artists who are trading had no professional training,” said Banda.

He said being a seed fund, it is not refundable but they are encouraging the beneficiaries to be transparent and invest the money according to the business plans they pitched.

Banda said: “As a monitoring mechanism, they will be updating us on the payments made and provide receipts for the same. If they are purchasing equipment, we will need to see the equipment as well.”

One of the beneficiaries, filmmaker Misoya, who runs  Gosm Films company, said artists face challenges to produce content and material which is competitive on the market because of limited resources.

“This is a huge boost for me as an artist. The funds will help me achieve my dreams of producing quality movies and help my business to grow,” he said.

Misoya said he will invest the funds in securing audio and lighting equipment for his movie production company.

Nyamwera, who is into stone sculpture, said the funds will help him to add value to his products.

He said: “I want to scale up my market. My products aim for visual attraction and for me to break even I need to present my products in the most attractive form.