Five companies formed by recent graduates of Malawi University of Business & Applied Sciences (MUBAS), formerly the Polytechnic of Malawi have attracted the attention of FDH Financial holdings Limited for further nurturing.
There were seven companies that made their pitches to FDH Financial Holdings top executives in Blantyre on Friday on their business ideas and the seven panel of executives who included FDH Bank acting Managing Director George Chitera settled to nurture the five companies.
The panelists included FDH Money Bureau Managing Director, Daniel Pinto Khamula; First Discount House Managing Director Mike Chiwalo and several FDH Holdings heads of departments.
After the nurturing and assessment, the most viable ones from the five will eventually get funding upon their graduation from MUBAS with continued mentoring by the financial services providers.
The FDH’s initiative, the first of its kind in the financial services industry as well as the corporate world, followed a symposium MUBAS’ Faculty of Education and Media Studies which impressed FDH Bank’s acting MD Chitera who attended it as Guest of Honour.
After sharing with the rest of the FDH Holdings’ management team, they resolved to gather the students again for the real time presentations named FDH Graduate Start Ups.
Chitera, while assuring the presenters not to be intimidated by the positions of the panelists and the rest of the top management team present in the hall, impressed on them that if successful, the FDH Graduate Start Ups shall be made into an annual event.
“Every business starts with a concept which must be disciplined and consistent. It is not easy at the beginning but if it fails, you go back to the drawing board and move on. Others think of how and where they can acquire working capital but we at FDH believe that it’s the people’s disciplined ideas that generate capital.”
“The panelists in front of you are the working capital, impress them with confidence to earn their confidence to pick some of you for the funding you will need to generate your ideas and concepts into reality,” said Chitera.
The panelists really grilled the young minds but they stood resolute to answer some difficult questions while others were more leading as they punched holes in the concepts while at the same time offering tips on how they can be improved.
The nine companies the final year students have formed are Clean Energy of Enterprise; Direct-Connect Real Estate Solutions; Kuwali interior Design & Decoration; Clean Energy of Malawi; My Artistic Dream School of Art and Gallery; Rise & Shine Secondary School; The Public Eye; Umodzi Farm and Yours Truly Event Planning & Management.
They all presented from power points their management plans; capital projections; marketing strategies; mass media visibility as well as how to cope with challenges the country is facing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The five that have been selected for further assessment and nurturing were Clean Energy of Enterprise (CLEE); Direct-Connect Real Estate Solutions (Di-coRES); Kuwali interior Design & Decoration (KIDD); My Artistic Dream (School of Art and Gallery) and Rise & Shine Secondary School.
