Over E700 000 for Youth Business Plan Competition

MBABANE – Young entrepreneurs stand to benefit from the E775 000 set aside by TechnoServe for the newly-established Youth Business Plan Competition.

TechnoServe has been running the Business Plan Competition (BPC) in the country for the past three years and the Youth Business Plan Competition is specifically geared towards encouraging young entrepreneurs to start and grow their own businesses.

TechnoServe’s BPC Manager Jean Mwenda said the overall winner of the Youth Business Plan Competition would receive E100 000 and the five runners up would receive E75 000 each.

She was speaking during the pre-launch of the Youth Business Plan Competition held at the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs yesterday.

"The youth is the backbone of the economy. They have the energy and innovative minds to make their lives better. Through the Believe, Begin, Become programme, TechnoServe can impart entrepreneurial skills that they can use to start their own businesses, employ other people and help in eliminating poverty in the country," she said.

Mwenda further said TechnoServe had been exploring the idea of running a competition of this nature for some time now.

"After approaching other stakeholders working on youth initiatives, we realised that there was a great need to inspire the youth into entrepreneurship. These stakeholders include the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, the Swaziland National Youth Council (SNYC), and ACAT, among others," she said.

The competition will be officially launched on January 31, 2009 at Matata, Big Bend.

TechnoServe is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides the core financial support that enables the competitions.