Call for youths to apply for Eagles Nest fourth session

ZIMTRADE is calling for youths in the southern region to apply for the fourth session of the Eagles Nest, an incubator programme meant to prepare youth-owned businesses for exports.

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 future trade success for Zimbabwe.

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 marginalised 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.

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

In an update during the media engagement last week in Bulawayo, ZimTrade southern region manager Mrs Jackie Nyathi said they wanted 20 youth business owners per province in the region.

“Eagles Nest is a youth incubator programme which is now going into its fourth session. The idea is to focus on youth entrepreneurs in support of the Government’s idea to empower youths and women,” she said.

“We have already put a call for applications, so we urge youths that are 35 years and below with business operations to come through and apply. The Eagles Nest is a very insightful programme, the one who won during the first cohort is now supplying Shoprite regionally, and we went with her to Egypt and she got partners from Ghana and Senegal.”
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 terrains like the Netherlands-based PUM and SES of Germany, which are retired expert organisations.

The programme also offers 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 the product from the design stage to the packaging stage, and different upgraded machinery to ensure their product meets international standards.

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

Working with some key national institutions eases the registration process and ensures that more youth-led businesses are formalised.

After formalising, 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, which avail funding facilities tailored for youth-led SMEs.

The critical component of the Eagle’s Nest Programme is supporting youth-owned businesses to reach the export market by promoting their products and services in foreign countries.

The just-ended session of Eagles Nest saw Corporate Beverages, a Bulawayo youth-owned business become the second runner-up.

Mrs Nyathi said starting next year the products would go out to the region for marketing.chronicle