They are among of 709 who applied for the programme, which was launched by the Prime Minister Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa on 12th March this year, targeting to provide seed capital, capacity building and funding for small youths and women-led businesses.
Speaking during the opening of the boot camp, CRDB Bank managing director Abdulmajid Nsekela congratulated them for qualifying for the programme, insisting that their unique innovation, stable desire and entrepreneurial efforts have enabled them to be selected among hundreds of applicants.
“We are starting a two-week boot camp and this is greater moment of your entrepreneurship journey because you will get ppportunities to improve your products, strategies and necessary skills to enable you to succeed in this early stage of managing your businesses. I urge you to learn properly in order to use skills acquired from this training to improve businesses. You should also remember that knowledge is power for building proper skills and you will be able to face challenges for grabbing opportunities ahead. That is where the successes of this will be realized,” he said.
He said CRDB Bank is intending to support the growth of small businesses through providing enabling capital, specifically those led by youths and women and other social groups that are not enjoying economic opportunities.
The bank’s MD said access to funding is an important tool in changing innovative ideas into sustainable business that is why iMbeju was launched to stimulate the successes of innovators and startups to ensure that, access to funding is not an obstacle.
“Our bank is ready to invest on your dreams and provide important resources to help businesses and business ideas to grow to achieve more successes. We believe that, lack of skill is one of the major reasons for many small businesses to fail to enable them to identify business risks and opportunities for growth. Entrepreneurship journey has so many obstacles but you should not despair. You should know that your journey has so many obstacles and this boot camp give you the tools to face these challenges,” he said.
CRDB Bank Foundation managing director Tully Ester Mwambapa said capital is not only challenge facing youths with innovative ideas to turn them into businesses that will solve social problems as data show many small businesses go burst not because of capital, but lack of skills in operating and managing businesses.
“Today, we are walking the talk in the sense of providing training targeting to improve your capacities youths applied for seed capital through iMbeju in order to teach into a stage of empowering them. Not all have reached this stage of enabling capital, so you should use this knowledge to grow your businesses. We have sent aside 5bn/- for this purpose for empowering youths, so this boot camp is part of the filter to reach out applicants who will be selected to receive seed capital,” she said.
Costech director general Dr Amos Nungu said he believe capital is money; without knowing that even an idea is also capital and if developed can solve social problems.
National ICT commiccion director general Dr Nkundwe Mwasaga said the commission has two tasks; one being to coordinate ICT operations in the country and implement the national ICT policy.
‘What will be done in this boot camp is to empower them to manage and grow their businesses,” he said.
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