30 Apr 2015

Government often encourages young people, particularly graduates to deviate from the norm of looking for formal employment but venture into business to create employment for others.

Government through the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture took the initiative to empower the youth through the Youth Development Fund (YDF), a programme which is basically a youth enterprise development and support initiative targeting start-up and or existing businesses that young people own or set up.

The programme is aimed at encouraging out of school, marginalised, unemployed and under-employed youth to venture into sustainable and viable income generating projects besides to creating sustainable employment opportunities for young people.

Palapye born Mr Ronald Nkwaila completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management but unlike most of his peers he had no interest in joining the work force. Armed with a degree in Business Management he was only half way through achieving his dream of becoming his own boss but the challenge was to come up with a business idea that would convince his financiers to assist him with funds to start his own business.

However, mr Nkwaila did not have a hard time cracking his brains to solve the puzzle. He tried to concentrate on businesses that were not in Palapye and eventually decided to settle for eateries.

He realised that Palapye had only a few eateries and decided to start a pizza enterprise since there were already big chicken outlets which might swallow his business should he try to start a chicken enterprise. The 25 year old Mr Nkwaila is not new in the kitchen as his mother who is working as a chef has always taught him to cook different dishes as a child including pizza.

After registering his own company he applied for YDF funds in 2013 and within a short period of time his application was approved and got funding to the tune of P94 000. He secured a place to operate from and purchased ovens and other utensils required for his business.

His mother was also hands on, helping him set up and teaching his two employees how to make different types of pizzas. Today, the Chosen Pizza Enterprise makes all types of pizzas - Mexican, spicy chicken, spicy beef, vegetarian and Italian pizzas and sells to individuals, companies, students and government departments.

The now well-established enterprise started with two employees but has now increased to three, which Mr Nkwaila attributes to good business management, something he learnt during his tenure as a business student.

“At school I was taught that I should separate the business account from the personal account,” he recalls. He says he may be a director in his business but he considers himself a worker and has his own monthly salary.

“Once my salary is finished I do not withdraw money from my business account in order to buy personal stuff.” He also underscores the importance of running the business full time instead of running it with a remote control.

Mr Nkwaila is currently working on branding his products as well as intensifying his marketing strategies and is planning on spreading his wings to open two more branches in Mahalapye and Selebi Phikwe.

As an entrepreneur, he has learnt not to put his eggs in one basket. As such he has included other dishes to increase his customer base.
That has enabled him to win catering tenders from government and private companies. Ends