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Michael Tome and Kiyara Matambanadzo

Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe, last Friday unveiled the “Futuremakers” initiative in collaboration with Junior Achievement Zimbabwe (JAZ) as part of efforts to groom and empower the youths with life changing opportunities.

The programme is directed at empowering the disadvantaged young people from low-income households, particularly girls and people with visual impairments, to take part in programmes focused on education and entrepreneurship.

Futuremakers seeks to raise US$50 million between now and 2023 through fundraising in order to support disadvantaged young people and empower them to learn and establish their small businesses. 

The bank handed over a donation of $500 000 to JAZ to run the tailor designed Futuremakers programme for the next three years as part of the launch of the initiative.

Standard Chartered Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Ralph Watungwa, also shared the vision for the Futuremakers programme, saying it is focused on sustainable outcomes.

“…in 2018, we challenged ourselves to say that doing good enough was not going to change the world. Futuremakers has been developed with exactly this philosophy at its core — doing and investing where we can and will see tangible sustainable results in the lives of our youths.

“Futuremakers is therefore a journey not a moment or collection of moments,” alluded Mr Watungwa.

JAZ, which was established in 1998 was identified as a partner on the inaugural programme in Zimbabwe to drive the Financial Education piece as it has historically offered unique and experiential programmes centred on entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Speaking at the launch Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr Jesimeni Chipika, implored the two organisations to drive the financial education agenda that has been described as  key to the development of the economy and of Zimbabwe as a whole. This is so given that the youths constitute the majority of Zimbabwe population.

“…this initiative will have a significant impact on the lives of young people of Zimbabwe…according to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency population projections based on the 2012 population census, there were about 5,6 million children of school going age (3 -18 years) in 2018,” she said.

Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, is a global initiative to solve the issue of inequality and seeks to promote greater economic inclusion for young people in communities across the globe.

Standard Chartered is an international banking group, with a presence in more than 70 countries around the world.