The Young Observer Program

📰:𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗕𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗥
🗞:𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙖 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝 𝙪𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝
✍|📸:Buhlebenkosi Nkomo
🗓:19/09/2023
🌐: https://www.facebook.com/bringingjoylovelife

Buhlebenkosi Nkomo is a young writer and journalist from the City of Queens, Bulawayo. Through her writing, she was part of the Emoyeni Dig2 and Yield Trust Bulawayo Community Champions in 2022. She graduated in 2021 from the National University of Science and Technology with a degree in Journalism and Media Studies.

With the escalating rate of unemployment in Zimbabwe, entrepreneurship has fast become a solution for many young youths. The desire to be financially stable is a dream for many youths who have developed an entrepreneurial spirit.
According to the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (Zimstat) Zimbabawe's national unemployment rate stood at 19% during the first quarter of Zimbabwe while the expanded unemployment rate for the nation was 46, 7%.
Echoing these sentiments, Rejoyce Ndlovu noted that getting a job is very difficult as jobs are hard to come by.
"The best way one can escape being part of the numbers that make the unemployment rate high is to try venturing into enterpreneurship. Well this is what many people are doing nowadays. Of course most do not have the capital to start their small businesses but it is all about commitment, sacrificing and just making things happen. Nothing comes on a silver platter, it is all about working hard to make it."
While the idea of entrepreneurship is a comforting one, Ndlovu noted that the lack of capital and business acumen may hinder the progress of one's business. She therefore echoed the need for collaborative efforts and trainings by saying:
"For example one might lack the income to start that small business, another might have that income but struggle with managing the business and getting investors or clients and another might start well and things go smooth but as time goes, the business just collapses or gets phased out by other outstanding businesses out there."
Nira Kwela, the organiser of a workshop which was dubbed as Take the Plunge! said her focus was to empower and help youths find gaps in their communities that they can fill up to develop themselves and their communities.
"It really stands out because most of us want to be productive in life, we want to make a change in our communities and we have dreams for a better tomorrow. Of which I believe with an entrepreneurial mindset we can do more to make a positive difference in our lives."
While others agreed that entrepreneurship may be the solution to the high unemployment rate amongst youths in Zimbabwe, Nobukhosi Sibanda was of a different view. She had this to say:
"Entrepreneurship on its own needs a functioning economy to be grounded as entrepreneurship, one can highlight that the lack of disposable income in this country suggests that a majority of youth(s) are are turning not as a means of survival but as a means to just to see the rise of the morning, so the former is not the solution to the current crisis the nation is going through."
Sibanda noted that while entrepreneurship may seem to be a fitting solution to the high unemployment rate in Zimbabwe, there are other means. Her sentiments were further echoed by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Technology Development, Professor Amon Murwira who was quoted in the media who urged university students to create employment for themselves by saying:
"Under Heritage based Education 5.0 institutions of Higher and Tertiary Education must impart capabilities that enable learners to produce goods and services that satisfy the needs of our people.It is through the production of goods and services that we shall propel Zimbabwe to an upper middle income economy."
Heritage based Education 5.0's primary goal is to nurture students to become employment creators rather than employment seekers by providing them with the necessary skills.