Page 80 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 25

Economy
on opportunities and close on
available gaps. Innovations
that add value to the rest of the
populace are enabling countries
to maximize that and improve
their economic status take for
example developed countries
such as China and the United
States of America.
In Zimbabwe, the government
has initiated that all institutions
follow the 5.0 doctrine. The age
18 - 35 falls under the bracket
of youths and most of them
will pass through the doors of
tertiary education. That said,
the doctrine is premised on
the idea each research that a
student does must come up
with commercially viable
innovation. It must be of the
value of some sort if it doesn’t
add so to the available body
of knowledge then there is a
problem of misalignment.
80 | we tell the true afrikan story
Also, these goods and services
must be heritage-based as well.
All these are major strides to
promote local industrialisation
and to ensure idea generation
does not end on that point but
progresses to product or service
development. Students who are
coming up with prototypes are
proud of the mandate of the 5.0
doctrine.
Besides instructing institutions
to follow this doctrine, our
Zimbabwean government in
2018 ensured the operation
of the Empowerment Bank.
Actually, by its name itself,
it proves the bank is mainly
based on empowering the
youths to make something
of their ideas business-wise.
This has immensely helped
in lending issues of loans
which was a tedious task in the
past given most do not have
collateral. Henceforth, with
Empowerment Bank a balance
was struck on how the lending
can be done starting even from
smaller amounts. Capital is
the major holdback for youth
entrepreneurs. For some
reason, giving a financial start
and boost will go a long way
in ensuring their dreams do not
face an early death.
Policies of all sorts are being
implemented and promoted so
that there is a sizeable growth
of youth entrepreneurs not only
in Zimbabwe but in her sister
African countries as well.
For Zimbabwe, this coincides
with the Robert Mugabe
Youth Day celebrated on the
21st of February every year
which serves to highlight
the government is standing
with the youths until eternity.
Interestingly, this year’s
theme was Positioning Youth
Empowerment and
Development Towards
Achieving Vision 2030.’
Needless to mention, the
youths are the leaders of
tomorrow therefore they need
to be aided to make the right
and sound decisions that will
increase the quality of life
for the masses. Creatively
coming up with commercially
viable innovations puts even
the country on another level.
Employment-wise, these
other youth entrepreneurs will
be able to aid in alleviating
this growing scourge that is