Co-leader of the Centre, Mary Kamwaza says they noted high unemployment rate among the youth in the country; hence the decision to open the Centre.

“We are intending to graduate 400 incubates. Currently, the cohort that has already started has 21 incubates. Right now, we have registered 221 incubates.

“One way of ensuring that the youth are employed is to make sure that they are engaged in something meaningful. That can only be done if we train them; help them with ideas, refine the ideas and produce some prototypes from them.

“From there then they can start businesses. They can then keep growing and employ more youth,” she said.

Manfred Magulu, Economic analyst – Real Sector at the Malawi Confederation of Chambers and Commerce Industry said on Thursday after launching the Center that the Center will help boosting the country’s economy.

“People have been having ideas to venture into business without having the knowhow on how to manage the businesses. We have had people who have come in with good ideas.

“For instance we had somebody who developed msima cooking machine but to put that into start up business was a problem. Such business incubation centers turn those ideas and harness them into a meaningful business to be viable,” he said.

Polytechnic Business Center is one of eight incubators in Malawi and it gets funding from the African Development Bank to the tune of $305 thousand.

Incubates are drawn from across the country with qualifications starting Malawi School Certificate of Education.

They will be learning machine manufacturing, entrepreneurship, welding and fabrication, photography, detergents manufacturing, waste management and concrete artefacts just mentioning a few.