Speaker Chimunthu urges youths to embrace spirit of entrepreneurship: Malawi commemorate Commonwealth Day

Speaker of Malawi Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda has called on youths in the country to have a spirit of entrepreneurship for them to be self- employed.

Chimunthu Banda made the call Monday during commemoration of Commonwealth Day at Katoto Secondary School in Mzuzu.

The theme for this year’s commemoration was ‘Opportunity through entrepreneurship’.

He explained that youths need to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship at an early age since their brains are still fresh and can generate innovative ideas.

The Speaker said if Malawian youths start to think of entrepreneurship as a viable venture at early age, the problem of unemployment will be reduced in the country since many youths will be self employed.

“There are a number of opportunities that one can generate from entrepreneurship and if we have this spirit of entrepreneurship at an early age, Malawians would look not only for the white collar jobs but to gain knowledge which could lead them to self employment which is equally well paying,” he said.

The speaker further revealed that Parliament would soon start having an outreach programme where the National Assembly will be taken to the people throughout the country for them to fully understand it.

“Within our strategic plan which was approved by Parliament in 2010, the main theme there is taking Parliament to people. We want people not to view Parliament as the buildings that are in Lilongwe, neither should people think that parliament exists when members of parliament converge in Lilongwe…

“What we want is to engage Malawians within the length and breadth of the country to see whether they understand parliament outside those buildings,” Chimunthu Banda explained.

He said research conducted recently by Inter Parliamentary Union revealed that many people don’t understand what Parliament is all about.

Speaking earlier, Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) George Mnesa said Malawi is on track in as far as the main roles of the Commonwealth are concerned.

“We have managed to achieve some roles of the commonwealth as seen by regular elections that Malawi has held in the past. Even the mere presence of various parties here indicates that we are doing well in as far as democracy consolidation is concerned,” he said.

During the function, four secondary schools namely Mzuzu Government, Katoto, Viphya and Ekwendeni Girls competed in an academic quiz competition where Mzuzu Government Secondary School emerged the overall winner after beating Ekwendeni Girls by 25 points to 13.

The Commonwealth Day is commemorated yearly by all nations which were colonised by Britain or voluntarily applied to join the grouping.