A 21-year-old girl, Chikondi Kamwendo, from Bangula in Nsanje District has emerged as the first winner in the ‘Kuthandiza Omwe Alibe Kuthekera Kupita Patsogolo’ project by Triephornia Mpinganjira.
Announced on April 1st, the project, which runs up to December this year, aims at providing K1 Million to 18 lucky youths who will be presenting their business ideas as start-up capital via a link to Triephornia Mpinganjira’s Facebook page account.
Speaking after a symbolic presentation of a Cheque of K1 Million on Tuesday in Lilongwe, Mpinganjira said that the project received over 43,000 applications and her team reviewed all the applications, including making physical visits to potential winners.
She added that it was hard to come up with the first winner because most of the business ideas that the youths presented through her page were brilliant such that it wasn’t easy for her and the team to come up with the winner.
“I am so excited that we have come up with our first winner, Chikondi from Bangula in Sanje District. She is a 21-year-old girl from an impoverished background, living in a remote area. Despite her background, she managed to go to Nsanje Secondary and qualified for a university education.
“She enrolled at Livingstonia University a year ago but couldn’t continue the third semester because her parents couldn’t manage her fees. She appealed to the administration to reserve her place. She returned home and started selling Zigege thinking she would raise enough money for her fees. Because of social media, she got the announcement and made an application. Now here she is as our winner,” she explained
She revealed that Chikondi’s business idea is original, practical, sincere, a product of research, and a pure understanding of her society.
“She lives in a disaster-prone area where food availability and accessibility are challenging. So, she wants to open a farm store at Bangula where she will be selling maize, millet, and beans at an affordable price. With K1 million, she has made her projections that she will make more than K2.5 million which she wants to invest back into the business until the second year when she will use part of the profits to return to school,” said Mpinganjira.
In her remarks, Kamwendo expressed great excitement for becoming the first beneficiary and assured Mpinganjira and Malawians that she will be prudent in managing the funds ensuring that everything goes into her business.
Kamwendo has since encouraged fellow youths to continue presenting their business ideas because one day they may be the lucky ones.
