The Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC) has said the Digital Skills and Innovation Initiative under the Malawi Digital Project is making a positive impact towards improving digital skills and creation of jobs.

PPPC chief executive officer Patrick Kabambe said this on Friday in Blantyre during an engagement with tech hubs which got $250 000 (K259 million) grants to train youths and women in digital skills and entrepreneurship as a component under the Malawi Digital Project.

Kabambe: The project is making huge impact on job creation

He said through six tech hubs, namely Dzuka Africa Organisation, Growth Africa, mHub, Mzuzu E-hub, Techno Lab and Ntha Foundation, the project, which seeks to digitally empower the youth in the country, has made positive strides. 

Said Kabambe: “One of the components of the Digital Malawi Project was providing support to tech hubs to provide digital skills to the youth and women in rural areas.

“What we have seen through the engagement with the tech hubs and beneficiaries is that the project is making a huge impact on job creation and helping the youth in rural areas to be self-reliant.”

He said the youth in rural areas are now using digital skills to market their products and create their own employment.

“We hope these will go a long way not only in creating jobs, but creating a self-reliant nation,” said Kabambe. 

He said the commission will now undertake a survey to see the exact jobs that have been created, adding that they will be implementing the second phase of the digital skills grants at an estimated budget of $1.25 million (about K1.2 billion) to train an extra 3 000 youths and women at the end of the programme.

Dzuka Africa Organisation managing director Dineo Mkwezalamba, whose firm is one of the beneficiary tech hubs, said the project grant has helped to create self-reliant youths and women as well as growing their businesses.

He said: “We have to validate 885 youths in seven districts.

“We have recruited people that have never touched the computer, but are willing to change their lives and start businesses. We have since trained 269 in  entrepreneurship and 469  in digital skills training.”

Mkwezalamba said they had a three-year penetration strategy which has helped them to go into districts.

“We have also received 30 computers from the programme which have helped us to train the youths,” she said.

The Digital Malawi Project is a $74 million (about K77 billion) World Bank-funded project whose aim is to contribute to a digital transformation.

The project, which is being iimplemented by PPPC also seeks to extend and improve access to critical information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure for the public and private sectors, improve ICT governance, improve access to government services and reduce infrastructure costs by providing reliable, fast and adaptive government digital systems that will facilitate provision of e-services, thereby enhancing public service delivery.

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