NYCOM, GIZ in agri-business training
NYCOM, GIZ in agri-business training
The National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) with support from GIZ is training youths across the country in agribusiness.
The sessions are part of a six-month long training program rolled out in two traditional authorities each from Mchinji, Ntchisi and Mzimba South.
NYCOM’s Program Officer responsible for Youth Participation and Economic Empowerment Felix Chiyenda states that the training will benefit a lot of clubs who often times are side-lined.
“The youth clubs are already running their own small agribusinesses. Their representatives are attending a total of four training blocks that last three to five days each.
“The representatives will be enabled to transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to their fellow youth club members,” he added.
The curriculum is focusing on SWOT analysis, organizational in-depth-analysis, strategizing, organizational structures and operations, entrepreneurship, business idea identification, service delivery, external networking business plan, marketing and financials just to mention a few.
The program is supported by the project ‘Empowering Youth in Agribusiness!’ by Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
“It aims to enable youth clubs to improve their organizational leadership, governance and operational structures as well as strengthen their business and entrepreneurship skills.
“It also seeks to impart expertise to help them graduate into youth organizations and run successful and sustainable agribusinesses,” says GIZ’s Development Advisor, Kristina Sonnenschein.
Within the three districts, the project is targeting to train a total of 132 youth from 42 youth clubs, she added.
The training sessions will culminate into an opportunity for the youth clubs to get funding for their activities.
“We will finish with a pitching event in which each youth club gets the opportunity to receive a small grant to support its presented business model,” explained Sonnenschein.
So far, 102 youths have attended the first block session of the trainings. They include 23 youths each from TAs Dambe and Mkanda in Mchinji as well as Malenga and Kasakula in Ntchisi.