TIWATUKULE YOUTH FUND: Creating Youth Employment Through Entrepreneurship Financing

Youth unemployment continues to be a developmental challenge in Malawi where at least 7.52% of youth, aged 15 -24, continue to be unemployed and the Government is grappling for solutions to fix this statistic.

The Centre for Youth and Development (CYD) has been focusing on self-employment as part of their mission and their approach to addressing the challenges of youth unemployment. The Tiwatukule Youth Fund targets youth entrepreneurs in early stages to provide them entrepreneurship financing to eliminate youth unemployment.

The major pillars for this initiative focus on Enterprise development, Job creation, Business skills training and Business development. 

One of the beneficiaries of this initiative was Blessings Chilanga of ‘Space Age Veterinary and Consulting’, wherewith the support from the program he was provided access to financing and mentorship to grow his small business in the community of Mzuzu. 

In the Video, Blessings, shares his challenges of accessing financial help as well as the unemployment challenges among youth in Malawi and how the Tiwatukule Youth Fund changed the future of his business.

Access to formal financial services still remains limited in Malawi. These limitations greatly affect youth and young entrepreneurs more because youth are not yet considered a viable market as they often lack collateral, verifiable credit history and/or steady employment, and other requirements required by formal financial service providers.

The CYD believes in increasing access to financial services among youth, like entrepreneurs starting and expanding business, as this has a positive development outcome of income diversification and increases employment rates among many labour markets. Blessings is just one of the 32 successful young entrepreneurs that are running profitable businesses and employing fellow young people through the support of the program.

Your support would enable us to grow the ‘Tiwatukule Youth Fund’ to provide more financial funding to young entrepreneurs and to continue to support enterprise development, youth employment, and business skills to help small businesses grow in Malawi. 

To partner, donate and/or for more information please email: info@cydmalawi.org