The Eight2Five Innovation Hub, home for entrepreneurs, celebrated its first anniversary. The Eight2Five Innovation Hub powered by Old Mutual Zimbabwe focuses on creating a modern, professional, and energetic work environment to stimulate the creativity and productivity of entrepreneurial businesses and their teams.
“Current times are changing very fast, demanding young people to be proactive. We have come a long way, and the year has been a learning experience and a green light to continue exploring opportunities to continue innovating solutions for our customers and all stakeholders.”
Sam Matsekete, Old Mutual Group CEO
At its core, entrepreneurship is one of the main strategic pillars for Old Mutual Zimbabwe. Its key mandate is to ensure growth in the SME and Informal Sectors. Over the past year, the company has supported entrepreneurs running small enterprises and making a meaningful impact in their value chain and Zimbabwe by providing office space, mentoring, skills development, capacity building and a network.
The Eight2Five Innovation Hub launched during a pandemic, and it had to overcome the challenges with innovative and forward-thinking ideas. The first year for a business is rarely an easy one so naturally, Old Mutual Zimbabwe held a hybrid event to celebrate a successful year.
“Over 12,000 entrepreneurs came and interacted with the space, and with our programs for further capacitation. Eight2Five Hub has managed to have one of the entrepreneurs sign an MOU with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority about how they can profile the wonders of Zimbabwe through virtual and augmented reality. We also managed to facilitate a production agreement for another entrepreneur with a company in the UK through our partnership with the British Council. The list is endless about the great things that are happening at Eight2Five.”
Lillian Mbayiwa, Head of Group Marketing and Innovation
The hybrid event had esteemed guests in attendance including members of the Old Mutual Executive Committee, Eight2Five partners, the Honourable Minister Kirsty Coventry, and entrepreneurs from the Eight2Five Innovation Hub.
“Eight2Five Innovation Hub has been very instrumental in partnering with young entrepreneurs and linking them to real opportunities that exist in both local and regional markets. It is an opportunity that every young entrepreneur should not take for granted.”
Kirsty Coventry, Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts, and Recreation
Despite the Covid 19 pandemic, the Eight2Five Innovation Hub has birthed groundbreaking training programs that have impacted over 12 000 entrepreneurs; the nationwide program dubbed Value Creation Challenge in partnership with the British Council, the Virtual Speed Mentoring initiative launched on 26 March 2021, and many others.
In total, the Eight2Five Hub has held over 35 pieces of training and hosted 17 events over the past year. Eight2Five Innovation Hub plans to continue developing strategic programs to elevate the levels of innovation by effectively engaging startups, and other stakeholders such as the government, investors, and academia.-techzim