CAPACITY BOOST FOR YOUNG SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS WITH INNOVATIVE IDEAS IN DAR

Hanns Seidel Foundation Resident Representative for Tanzania and Uganda, Julia Berger (second left), addresses journalists at a media conference during the official launch of Tujenge TZ Innovation Challenge program in Dar es Salaam today. Looking on from left; Unleashed Africa Managing Director, Khalila Kellz Mbowe, Hanns Seidel Foundation Project Officer, Kadele Mabumba and Truemaisha Managing Director, Erick Chrispin.

DAR ES SALAAM April 4th 2018. A novel initiative, Tujenge TZ Innovative Challenge, aiming at stimulating the innovative potential of youth and the social enterprise eco-system in the country by catalyzing the growth of their social enterprise through a rigorous training and mentorship program has been launched today.

The program will feature an open competitive system whereby youth engaged in social entrepreneurial ventures are invited to submit their active business ideas.

The program is a joint initiative of Unleashed Africa Company Limited, Truemaisha Company Limited and the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

According to the founder and Managing Director of Unleashed Africa, Khalila Kellz Mbowe, the program is set to increase the possibilities for youth with great social businesses to grow extensively in their areas of work and hence their social impact.

The programme, which is open for applications from all sectors of the economy, will feature an idea’s competition that will involve receiving applications from practicing social entrepreneurs between ages 18 and 35 years.

“The qualifiers will receive the unique chance of being part of a rigorous week of capacity building in form of training in Social Enterprise knowledge, skills and tools for growth as well as civic education to help them understand  better the roles and responsibilities they have as active citizens in our country’s development agenda,” said Khalila Mbowe.

Kadele Mabumba, Hanns Seidel Foundation’s Program Manager for Tanzania and Uganda, said, “The Tujenge Tanzania Innovation Challenge is a Social Entrepreneurship Empowerment Program with a set goal of growing the social entrepreneurship eco-system in Tanzania by building the capacity of growth stage “active” social entrepreneurs while at the same time raising the awareness of and presenting the Social Entrepreneurship concept of doing business as a viable and practical option for developing Tanzanian communities both and socially and economically at the same time.”

Specifically, according to Erick Chrispin, Truemaisha’s founder and Managing Director, the program aims at increasing the impact of said Social Enterprises in their communities, hence increasing to the rise of the enterprise’s socio-economic development agendas, and in turn create jobs and hence reduce youth unemployment.

In order to maximize youth awareness and participation, the programme will feature a digital communication campaign expertly designed to raise public awareness of the concept of social entrepreneurship, its practice and the overall benefit of its unique business model to the socio-economic growth of the communities in which social enterprises thrive.

INFORM EMPOWER EQUIP

The programme is open to Tanzanian citizens residing in the country, who must submit a "Social Enterprise" idea that has been in operation for over one year, and the applicant's enterprise must be operating in the Dar es Salaam Region. The enterprise must have at least one person working on a full-time basis, who may also be the founder and does not necessarily refer to staff.

Said the founder of Truemaisha: “The Tujenge TZ Innovation Challenge as a programme hosts a specially designed mentorship program that will align each finalist to a successful Social Entrepreneur who will walk with them in the journeys and also share valuable experiences and insights that will help them move their social businesses to the next level.”

On her part Julia Berger, Resident Representative of Hanns Seidel Foundation Tanzania & Uganda remarked “We realized that the demographic growth of Tanzania demands programs which are specifically centered on this target group. If the country wants to achieve its’ Vision 2025 to lead Tanzania into becoming a middle income country, then solutions need to be developed to include this growing working force into the labour market.”

“An innovative way of doing this is to promote the ideas of young people how they can contribute to solving problems they see in their community whilst supporting them in their business idea. We at Hanns Seidel Foundation hope to see a generation of responsible and active citizen growing up in the coming years which can contribute to shaping Tanzania’s future.’

“Therefore we came up with the idea of launching a pilot project in the area of social entrepreneurship together with Unleashed Africa and TrueMaisha. Whilst we are only targeting enterprises that are active in the Dar es Salaam area this year, we hope to see this project grow into a bigger one, opening access to youth from all over the country in the following years.”

We also believe that the success of this programme will move Tanzania further in achieving the United Nations Sustainable development Goal number 8, which reads, ‘to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all’. We therefore invite any institution or organization interested partnering with us in this endeavor to contact us.” added Julia Berger.”