ESAMI PLEDGES SUPPORT TO ARUSHA YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

The Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (Esami) has pledged support to budding entrepreneurs in Arusha.

The mentoring programme will focus on agribusiness and will rope in the regional business chamber.

"We will come up with a programme for the youth to make them productive", said Prof Martin Lwanga, the new director general.

He said youth account for 65 percent of the population in Tanzania and the entire eastern and southern Africa region.

"We should work with the industry to prepare these people (youth) who will be our managers tommorrow", he said.

Esami, a management institute based here, will work with the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) in the endeavour.

"We will use experienced people to teach the young entrepreneurs", Prof Lwanga said during his visit to the regional TCCIA in Arusha.

He added; "These people (youth) are so clever that they can easily grasp the new skills in business, including soft wares".

TCCIA chairman in Arusha region Walter Maeda lauded the move, saying the initiative was in line with the government's policy.

He said President Samia Suluhu Hassan recently announced plans to support graduates from the higher learning institutions into agribusiness.

The initiative will see each graduate given 10 acres for productive farming to turn them into entrepreneurs in the wake of dwindling jobs in the formal sector.

Mr. Maeda said under the deal,Esami would prepare a module for the youth to work in the agribusiness sub-sector.

"Our young people will be trained in modern farming methods that are productive and hence improve their livelihoods", he pointed out.

Ms Sia Charles Marunda, the regional chamber's CEO said youths need to be assisted in entrepreneurship.

She said besides agribusiness, there were other openings in entrepreneurship training in small scale mining and the processing industries.

The TCCIA branch in Arusha was opened in 1994, six years after the launching of the national chamber in 1988.

Esami, which was established in 1980 with its headquarters in Arusha, offers training in a raft of business courses, including entrepreneurship.

It was established by the governments of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to provide specialized top level training in management, research and consultancy.

Its charter was later expanded to cover more countries in the region and beyond, mostly in southern Africa.

In recent years, the institute with its head offices so conspicuous with a  towering block on the Njiro hill, has become famous for its MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree programme.

Currently, it has ten satellite campuses in most of its member countries, one of which is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial hub.

In May 1997, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) designated it as "The African Centre of Excellence in Management Development."