mHub empowers youths in Nkhotakota

Youths in Nkhotakota District have acquired entrepreneurship skills and grants to start their businesses courtesy of Malawi Innovation Hub (mHub), a local technology solutions hub.

The hub has also drilled the youth in career development through its fair held in the district.

Speaking on Saturday during the opening of a two-day job and opportunity fair, Nkhotakota district commissioner Ben Tohno said the initiative gave youths an opportunity to improve their skills in business plan development.

He said: “This is a commendable exercise as young people are getting information on job opportunities and other services by virtue of being a youth.

“They have been empowered and have received the right information on what they can do to become productive citizens.”

The hub’s technical manager Daniel Mvalo said they organised the fair to prepare and expose youths to different opportunities, including business intelligence, networking and business benchmarking.

He said: “We train school-going youths in career development and those seeking jobs in producing good curriculum vitae.

“We also engage youths in entrepreneurship in  business planning.”

Mvalo said they asked the youth to apply for different jobs from their partners.

Naomi Kachifumbu, a participant from Malasa in Traditional Authority Malengachanzi said she acquired skills on how to apply jobs.

“Many youths are struggling to get jobs, sometimes because they don’t present themselves well to employers, but the training has empowered us with skills to market ourselves to employers,” she said.

Through partnership with GIZ, mHub has been training the youth for the past three months and  supported five business groups with K2 million.