Africa-Press – Mozambique. The ninth Orange Corners ‘#BIZ’ incubation programme yesterday (15-12) saw a group of 34 young Mozambican entrepreneurs graduate at the Netherlands embassy in Maputo.
Orange Corners Maputo is an initiative of the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in partnership with Heineken Mozambique, Standard Bank, Vodacom M-PESA and Van Oord. The program, implemented by ideaLab, provides business development sessions and direct monitoring by experienced entrepreneurship mentors, along with access to finance and networking.
From a total of 376 candidates, a group of 10 women and 24 men from the provinces of Maputo, Sofala, Manica, Nampula, Tete and Cabo-Delgado, all aged between 18 and 35 years and with a maximum of two years’ work experience, was selected.
“I was very impressed with the resilience of the Mozambican people, especially the youth,” Netherlands ambassador Elsbeth Akkerman said during the event. “In my four years here in Mozambique, I have spoken with many young people, and these conversations have shown me that we must listen to them as they are the future of this country and have great potential to change things for the better.”
“Youth needs opportunities like this Orange Corners incubation programme, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands is very happy to support it,” she added.
#BIZ graduates, in addition to training, have since the 7th edition of the programme, had access to funding from the Orange Corners Innovation Fund. All participants receive €750 during the programme, with the opportunity to compete for investments of up to €4,250 provided by the same entity.
During the graduation ceremony, Orange Corners manager Adelina Nhanala said that “with this edition, we reached 239 businesses incubated since the creation of Orange Corners Maputo. They are young people from various parts of the country who believe in the potential of their businesses and seize the opportunity to launch themselves into the market”.
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