Zambian Father And Daughter develop App To Solve Youth Unemployment
By Kalima Nkonde
In a unique, intergenerational and gender business partnership, a 60 year old father and his 30 year old daughter have come up with a digital solution to youth unemployment. The Zambian father and his daughter, have developed a youth employment creation app which is currently on google play store with potential to be a game changer in the fight against Youth unemployment especially in sub Saharan Africa.
Lusaka based, retired Chartered Accountant, Mwansa Prospery Chalwe and his Johannesburg based, IT professional daughter, Musonda Chalwe, through their firm, Prosper Knowledge Solutions, have developed a Youth Employment Creation App (YECA).
“We carried out extensive research on the youth unemployment problem by reading different countries youth unemployment interventions, reports by ILO,UN, World bank, Africa Development bank, University research papers and found out that the only solution to solving massive youth unemployment in Africa was through the promotion of youth entrepreneurship and self-employment,” Chalwe explained the process behind their solution.
“We were particularly inspired by the report from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which found out that two out five or 40% of youth want to go into business and but they lack the information and knowledge on how to go about it. We then decided that since most modern youth spend a substantial time on cell phones, developing an App to disseminate information and knowledge to youth on how to go into business has potential to reach and inspire millions of young people to determine their own destiny,” He added.
The App is particularly targeted at unemployed youth, school leavers, college and university graduates, informal sector entrepreneurs but it can also be useful to retirees and those retrenched or any business start-up candidate.
“In practical terms, among the features of the app, it provides guidance on steps of how to start a formal business, it has an interactive self-evaluation feature of whether you can be a successful entrepreneur, it also provides over 1,000 business ideas to those who cannot come up with their own ideas, it has in app links on where to get finance and business management skills, it provides basic practical guidelines in how to manage a small business. The YECA app is a one stop shop for current and potential youth entrepreneurs,” Chalwe said.
The developers believe that given the treasure trove of knowledge that they gained through the one year extensive research, they know unemployment interventions that do not work and those can work. They are inviting governments in sub Saharan Africa and international organizations to work with them to design individual countries youth unemployment programmes which could make use of YECA as the anchor tool to complement the other interventions and programmes.
“ It is recognized by reputable organisations like the African Development Bank that solutions to solving youth unemployment lie in the collaboration between government and the private sector. I would, therefore, appeal to the Zambian government to seriously consider partnering with us. We have practical solutions to solving youth unemployment and the YECA app is just one of the tools that can be used in tandem with other interventions,” Chalwe, the Co- founder of Prosper Knowledge Solutions urged government. “ We have a full knowledge of all the reasons why youth unemployment programmes fail around the world and we know how they can be avoided.”
The YECA developers believe that through the use of mobile phone technology and casting the knowledge and information net wider, it would be possible for countries to unearth the hidden and latent entrepreneur talent and unleash youth innovation. The app can be down loaded from Google play store or through the company website www.youthemploymentcreation.com.
