By Silindzelwe Nxumalo
THE University of Eswatini (UNESWA), Mbabane Campus’ Enactus team has been crowned the 2023 Enactus Eswatini Champions taking home E10 000 and endorsed to fly to the Netherlands to represent Eswatini at the Enactus World Cup in October.
Enactus is the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. Enactus develops college students into leaders who use business to solve community challenges, creating sustainable improvements in the lives of the people their projects serve, and in turn, the lives of the students themselves.
Enactus worldwide has more than 72 000 student participants in over 1 700 campuses in 37 countries including Eswatini. The national competition had eight contenders’ who were competing under the theme, ‘Celebrating Innovation, the Makoya Way’. The event was held at the MTN Headquarters, on Saturday.
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The Enactus national competition is a yearly event that invites students from tertiary institutions around the country to compete among themselves in Eswatini and the overall winner represents the country at the World Cup competitions which will be in the Netherlands next month to compete with other students from around the world.
This year’s competition was sponsored by MTN Eswatini, Nedbank Eswatini, and Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC). The eight contenders were William Pitcher, UNESWA Mbabane Campus, UNESWA Luyengo Campus, Ngwane College, Ngwane Park TVET, Good Shepard, ECOT, and SANU Siteki. The top four which moved to the second leg included, SANU Siteki, Luyengo Campus, Mbabane Campus and Good Shepherd.
Mbabane Campus’ business was the production of livestock food, Good Sheperd’s business was on recycling where they recycled 2l bottles for farming, SANU Siteki’s business was in the smart farming products and Luyengo’s business was on producing Beta Juice. Enactus Eswatini Country Director Nqobile Dludlu, said as Enactus they believed in investing in students who take entrepreneurial action to create a better world for everyone.
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She mentioned that the different young people who were competing had demonstrated solutions to the current world challenges, such as climate change, and environmental issues. She said Enactus Eswatini currently had five projects that had transitioned into businesses, others at the planning stage and others at the conceptualisation stage.
The country director said the organisation was currently transitioning into a new and much-needed space where they needed to support and work with aluminum because there was a gap that had been realised that once students exist in an institution of higher learning there is no one to assist them continue to be entrepreneurs.
“We are currently engaging with other stakeholders such as the YERF in ensuring that there is that continuity and that students can continue their entrepreneurship,” she said. She further thanked and appreciated the different competitors for putting in the work and joining the competition.
