By Our Reporter
MTN Uganda, in partnership with the Makerere University Business School (MUBS) has launched a youth-centered entrepreneurship TV show dubbed Nsindika Njake, aimed at supporting the youth with business-related-skills to efficiently operate businesses.
Uganda currently has the second youngest population in the world with over 78% below 30 years. Youth unemployment in Uganda stands at between 64% and 70%, with up to 400,000 young people entering the job market annually for a mere 9,000 jobs.
Based on the above statistics, entrepreneurship remains the most viable way to provide immediate employment and job creation opportunities. Unfortunately, majority of the start-ups don’t make it through their second year due to a number of reasons including the lack of entrepreneurial skills.
While launching the Nsindika Njake program in a press conference held on Monday at the MTN Uganda Headquarters in Kampala, Somdev Sen, MTN Uganda’s Chief Marketing Officer said that the show would go a long way in addressing the unemployment issue that the youth are currently facing.
“Given the high rate of youth unemployment, many youths have taken the right path of starting small businesses but sadly, majority of them have not had the opportunity to get the skills required to effectively operate a business. We believe that this show will teach them how to navigate the day-to-day challenges that they face in their businesses and set them on a path to becoming better entrepreneurs,” Somdev said.
Nsindika Njake is a TV show featuring budding entrepreneurs running small enterprises commonly referred to as ‘hustles’. The show targets both the educated or skilled and the unskilled, with the goal of equipping them with the requisite business skills to successfully run their hustles.
The 12 participants (small business owners) of the show will be mentored and trained by the MUBS entrepreneurship and small business center and thereafter engage in solving business-related challenges based on what they will have been taught for a period of 12 weeks.
Dr Diana Nandagire Ntamu, the Director MUBS Entrepreneurship Innovation and Incubation Centre said the Nsindika Njake program is a very unique initiative focusing on both classroom and experiential learning aimed at harnessing the youths’ entrepreneurial potential.
“92% of the young people that join the workforce in Uganda go to the informal sector and a lot of them are running SMEs yet they have no experience. As MUBS, we pride in supporting those young people through capacity building and mentorship so I must say that I am very excited to have worked with MTN. While MUBS fosters entrepreneurship, MTN Uganda wants to support young people,” she noted.
Dr Ntamu further lauded MTN Uganda for this effort noting that tackling youth unemployment is a collaborative effort.
While the top 3 winners will walk away with assorted cash prizes, the grand winner will get a cash prize of 60 million. The prize money will be issued over a period of one year upon the achievement of key milestones.
The Nsindika Njake Show will air every Wednesday at 8.30 pm on local TV stations with a repeat on Sundays at the same time.