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Business Reporter

NATIONAL trade development and promotion organization, ZimTrade, has vowed to continue scaling up and strengthening its capacity development support to youth-led businesses across the country.

Through the third season of its Eagles’ Nest Youth Export Incubation Programme (Eagles Nest), ZimTrade targets to integrate young people in mainstream export business.

The search for youth-led businesses that demonstrate export potential is already underway, and ZimTrade, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, seeks increase participation of young people in Bulawayo, Matebeleland North, Matabeleland South, and Midlands Provinces.

In a latest update, ZimTrade said the call for applications is still open until 31 March 2023, and young entrepreneurs between 18–35 years of age with businesses that have been operational for at least two years are eligible.

The incubation initiative, which won the World Trade Promotion Organisations (WTPO) Awards run by the International Trade Centre, for ‘Best Initiative for Inclusive and Sustainable Trade’, aims to nurture wider youthful potential exporters through capacity development and export promotion.

The youth incubation programme also strives to ensure that young people are capacitated and able to create sustainable export enterprises that guarantee the future trade success for Zimbabwe.

ZimTrade Southern Region Manager, Jacqueline Nyathi, said young people represent an important group that can contribute immensely towards export growth.

“Young people in Zimbabwe and across in Africa are too formidable a force that can create and take full advantage of export opportunities,” she said.

“With their innovation, and energy to create new products, they are a huge potential to be a solution towards developing our exports.

“What is important, therefore, is to provide enough support so that they are able to develop products that meet buyer’s expectations, and also promote their products in targeted markets.”

Mrs Nyathi also encouraged businesses in the southern part of Zimbabwe to take full advantage of the programme and grow their export businesses.

The Eagles’ Nest programme was launched in 2020 to inculcate an export culture among youth enterprises in Zimbabwe. The development of the programme was premised on the understanding that meaningful trade and economic development require specific approaches to include marginalized groups, particularly young people.

This initiative also anchors on the recognition by the National Youth Policy that the participation of young people in economic activities “provides sustenance and sustainable livelihood to the majority of them.”

Eagles Nest programme, now in its third year, bridges the knowledge gap by bringing together different stakeholders to support and nurture youth led businesses across Zimbabwe into viable export ready companies.

The programme uses a pool of mentors, who are successful local business owners to provide practical solutions that will aid in navigating some of the difficult business terrain.

ZimTrade’s partners such as Netherlands-based PUM and SES of Germany, which are retired expert organizations, also offer support to selected organisations, by providing expert advice to businesses that will make youth-owned businesses competitive.

Such expert advice includes appropriate international certification, ways to improve their product from design stage to packaging stage, and on needs basis, different upgraded machinery to ensure their product meets international standards.

A quick scan of youth-owned businesses reveals that some of them are not formally registered, regardless of the many years they have spent in operation.

Working with some key national institutions therefore eases the registration process and ensure that more youth-led businesses are formalized.

After formalizing, youth-owned businesses are expected to have access to bigger markets and financing, which remains a major challenge for small businesses.

Other stakeholders who are part of the Eagle’s Nest Programme are local banks and financing institutions, who avail funding facilities tailored for youth-led SMEs.

One critical component of the Eagle’s Nest Programme is support to youth-owned business to reach export market, by promoting their products and services in foreign countries.