From a group of 7 university teams from across Zimbabwe, the Enactus team from University of Zimbabwe has been named the 2016 Enactus Zimbabwe National Champion.
Nearly 350 student, academic and business leaders assembled at Cresta Sango Conference Centre for the competition on Friday July 1st 2016. More than 70 business executives serving as judges evaluated the community empowerment projects of the participating teams and provided valuable input on their continued efforts.
Among University of Zimbabwe’s award-winning outreach efforts were projects that included Agro Fuels, which is a project that aimed at reducing the burden of waste oil in the environment while also creating employment for former incarcerated individuals and Post-Harvest which aims at helping farmers reduce post-harvest losses through the use of the E-cooler device. Other finalists include:
Second Place—Chinhoyi University of Technology
Third Place—Midlands State University
Fourth Place—National University of Science and Technology
The Enactus Zimbabwe Board Chairman, Mr. Mucha Mkanganwi spoke at the competition awards ceremony and commended all the teams for their hard work and innovation which they applied throughout the year to improve the lives of the communities around them. He urged the teams to consider issues of sustainability for all their projects so they may operate in the long term.
In addition to the competition, the Enactus Zimbabwe National Competition featured special learning and networking opportunities for participants, including the panel discussion held at the Top to Future Luncheon. The topic under discussion was on the problem of youth unemployment in Zimbabwe and around the world. Panelists included Mr. Chris Chenga, Dr. Godfrey Kanyenze and Ms. Hopolang Phororo as well as student representatives; the panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Bongai Zamchiya
The Keynote speaker at the event was Ms. Precious Murena, Human Resources Director at Lafarge Holcim Zimbabwe. She spoke on the skills gap in Zimbabwe and how young people can improve their employability skills by seeking advice of mentors, joining professional associations as well as creating networks now, which will be useful in the future.
The University of Zimbabwe Enactus team will now advance to the Enactus World Cup 2016 in Toronto, Canada on 28-30 September. At the Enactus World Cup they will join the national champion teams from 35 countries to showcase their outreach efforts and compete for the prestigious title of Enactus Global Champion.
