Zimbabwe’s first entrepreneurship and innovation Hub, Muzinda, provided the opportunity and the platform for aspirant techpreneurs and app developers in the country to come together on 17-18 July for a StartUp Weekend aimed at developing and pitching new app ideas for potential future funding and commercialisation. The aim, to identify viable new tech ideas that investors might look to provide funding to in order to achieve commercialisation in the future. One young aspirant woman techpreneur, Tsungie Ncube, was one of the winners at the event.
"I just won a startup challenge over the weekend! It was being hosted by Muzinda Hub, and sponsored by Econet. I was working with a team of great guys and was the only lady there!"
- Tsungie Ncube
Together with her fellow team members, who only met and worked as a group over the StartUp Weekend, Tsungie Ncube was part of the creation of a tech solution to address a key challenge. Her team designed a new app to help vendors to better connect with their customers and efficiently deliver goods directly to the customers’ houses. The app allows these vendors to operate more like an online green-grocer, making customers lives much easier and shopping more convenient. The app will greatly help these vendors in their day to day activities, as they are often chased away from the streets where they operate, by the City Council and its officials. Tsungie was the designated presenter on behalf of the team, and responsible for making the pitch of their new app to the judging panel at the event. The feedback was extremely positive, with the panel liking Tsungie’s display of confidence in her app and her presentation style, on the pitching platform.
Tsungie says of her experience pitching the new app design at the StartUp Weekend:
“I was the one presenting on behalf of the whole team. They liked my confidence and I am naturally a good speaker when it comes to public speaking.”
Tsungie is currently undergoing a training programme with Muzinda, having started back in June, and is being given career development advice, mentoring and additional specialist training to become business ready. She is also a previous Ampioneer, having participated in the Ampion pan-African entrepreneurship initiative which enables young Africans to start ICT companies, creating considerable social and economic impact.
Muzinda is Zimbabwe’s first entrepreneurship and innovation Hub; a one-stop shop for idea development, innovation and digital skills development. These ideas will then be turned into solutions and business cases for job creation, wealth creation and sustainable social impact. The Hub’s initiative seek to capacitate the youth with both an investment in human capital through training and mentorship programs that connect Zimbabwe’s youth to opportunities within the emerging knowledge economy. Muzinda’s mission is to develop a platform that will empower young Zimbabweans with relevant, 21st century digital skills & entrepreneurial opportunities. It looks to achieve this by training and equipping young people with world class business and digital skills; providing a core working place for community engagement and colloboration; and creating a platform that connects young people to economic opportunities within the emerging digital and knowledge economy.