Econet gives 1 000 young people free skills training

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer Douglas Mboweni

AT least 1 000 young people who were trained to develop computer programmes such as Apps have graduated from Muzinda Hub, a high-tech computer training facility set up by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
The young people, who were educated by Econet through its support programme for orphans, have been given the opportunity to start earning a living by providing independent programming services to local and global companies. This is the first time such an initiative has been launched in Zimbabwe.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer Douglas Mboweni said there were opportunities for those trained to earn money by providing independent programming services to companies who outsource certain of their activities to independent developers.
Already, global companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft were spending millions of dollars by outsourcing as they found this to be much cheaper than employing their own developers.
“In Africa, these companies are currently spending more than US$5 billion a year. Countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya are the leading nations where over 500 000 young people have already been
trained by government programmes to get these type of skills,” said  Mboweni.
He said although Muzinda Hub is not a for profit activity, it is still expected to be self-sustaining. “Muzinda was originally set to train 10 000 young people but the company will not be training those numbers because of budgetary constraints,” said Mboweni.
He also confirmed that although Econet will continue to support orphans at schools, it won’t be able to continue with job creating schemes like Muzinda Hub due to budgetary constraints. “Our priority will always be orphans still at school. We will help those who are young adults, whenever resources permit.”
Econet in partnership with the Masiyiwa Family foundation has assisted more than 200,000 orphans over the last 20 years. It is considered one of the largest such programs in the world. The Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa has directed most of his personal income towards the programs to educate orphans, since he left the country 15 years ago.

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