The job queue is growing, why Tanzania’s youth must learn to create opportunities, not wait

MWANZA: AT a time when young people across Tanzania are increasingly searching for ways to earn a living and build sustainable careers, the Inuka Hub Economic Empowerment Platform is urging them to look beyond formal employment. The platform is encouraging youth to embrace practical training, entrepreneurship and technology as important tools for creating employment, generating income and building sustainable livelihoods.

The message comes as young people continue to face the challenge of identifying reliable economic opportunities.

According to Inuka Hub, providing youth with practical skills that can be applied in everyday economic activities can help them become self-employed, establish businesses and improve their incomes. Speaking recently in Mwanza, Inuka Hub Chairman, Mr Ahmed Mahewa, said the platform was established with the specific objective of economically empowering young people by equipping them with practical knowledge and skills that can be transformed into productive activities.

He explained that the initiative is designed to go beyond conventional classroom-based learning. Instead, it gives young people opportunities to observe, practise and understand how different economic activities operate in real-life settings. This practical approach, he said, is intended to help youth discover their abilities and identify areas where they can apply their talents to generate income.

As part of this effort, Inuka Hub organises various activities on the last Sunday of every month. These activities are aimed at strengthening the capacity of young people while encouraging them to explore their talents, acquire useful knowledge and identify opportunities through which they can earn a living. The platform also conducts practical training sessions every three months, focusing on productionoriented activities.

These include making different products, food processing and other activities that have the potential to become sources of income.

“The goal is to give youth practical skills so that they can learn how to do various things instead of relying solely on employment,” Mr Mahewa said.

His argument is that the challenge confronting young people is not always the complete absence of opportunities. In many cases, he said, young people lack sufficient practical knowledge to identify available opportunities and understand how to turn them into productive activities.

It is this gap that Inuka Hub seeks to address. By exposing young people to different economic activities and allowing them to learn through direct experience, the platform hopes to equip them with the confidence and knowledge needed to take advantage of opportunities around them. One of the ways it does this is by organising visits to various projects.

During these visits, young people are able to observe how businesses and other productive activities are established, managed and operated. Such exposure can help bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical experience.

Rather than simply hearing about entrepreneurship or production, participants have an opportunity to see how activities function in real-life situations and understand some of the steps involved in starting and developing their own ventures.

Beyond training and project visits, Inuka Hub also uses exhibitions and creative concerts to provide young people with platforms to showcase their talents, products and innovations. Mr Mahewa said these events can play an important role in building confidence among young people while creating opportunities for them to interact with potential customers, business partners and others who may contribute to their economic ambitions.

The emphasis on technology is another key component of the platform’s approach. Mr Mahewa noted that technology is increasingly becoming an important tool for young people seeking information, developing skills, marketing products and identifying opportunities.

With the rapid expansion of digital platforms, he said, young people should view technology as more than a means of communication and entertainment. It can also support learning, creativity, marketing and entrepreneurship. For young entrepreneurs in particular, digital tools can provide ways of reaching potential customers and accessing information that may previously have been difficult to obtain.

Encouraging youth to use technology productively, therefore, can form part of broader efforts to address unemployment and improve household incomes. Mr Mahewa stressed that the economic empowerment of young people has benefits that extend beyond individuals. When a young person becomes economically active, the benefits can reach families, communities and the wider national economy.

“If you elevate a young person, you elevate the Nation as a whole. That is why we involve youth in various activities aimed at empowering them economically,” he said.

The importance of entrepreneurship education was also emphasised by entrepreneur Ms Monica Paul, who said young people need knowledge that goes beyond simply learning how to start a business.

According to Paul, entrepreneurship education helps young people understand how to establish, manage and develop economic activities. It can also equip them to make informed decisions, recognise opportunities and build activities capable of generating income. She encouraged young people to participate actively in training programmes rather than waiting for opportunities to come to them.

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Paul urged youth to attend the training sessions in large numbers, arguing that broader participation would enable them to expand their knowledge and strengthen their capacity to pursue personal and economic goals.

“Entrepreneurship is not simply about starting a business; it also requires knowledge on how to develop and sustain what you have started,” she emphasised.

This focus on sustainability is particularly important because starting an economic activity is only the beginning. Young people also need the knowledge and skills required to manage, improve and maintain what they establish. Entrepreneur Julius Cheyo similarly challenged young people to move away from a culture of remaining at home without engaging in productive activities. He called on them to actively seek knowledge, acquire different skills and explore ways of turning those skills into income-generating activities.

Cheyo noted that opportunities exist across different sectors of society, but young people must develop the ability to recognise those opportunities and transform them into productive ventures. He also encouraged youth to think creatively about self-employment instead of considering formal employment the only route to economic success.

Developing diverse skills, he said, can give young people greater flexibility and help them respond to changing economic circumstances. The ambitions of Inuka Hub extend beyond the young people already participating in its programmes. Cheyo said the platform aims to reach a much larger number of youths, with an ambition of reaching more than 100,000 young people across Mwanza Region.

That target reflects a broader vision of making practical skills, entrepreneurship knowledge, technology and exposure to productive activities accessible to a wider section of the youth population. The emphasis on practical empowerment comes at a time when developing young people’s economic capacity is increasingly important to sustainable development.

For many youth, acquiring a practical skill can provide the foundation for establishing a small enterprise, improving an existing business or transforming a talent into a source of income. The central message from Inuka Hub is therefore not that young people should abandon the search for formal employment.

Rather, it is that they should complement that search by developing the capacity to create opportunities for themselves and potentially for others. Through its monthly activities, quarterly practical training, project visits, exhibitions, creative events and promotion of technology, the platform is seeking to nurture a culture in which young people learn, experiment and turn ideas into productive activities.

At the heart of this approach is the belief that practical skills can provide the foundation for economic empowerment, while entrepreneurship knowledge can help transform those skills into sustainable activities. For Mr Mahewa and the entrepreneurs supporting the initiative, the ultimate goal is to see young people transition from passive seekers of opportunities into active creators of economic value.

If expanded successfully, the plan to reach more than 100,000 young people in Mwanza Region could provide a wider platform for exposing youth to practical skills, entrepreneurship, technology and productive activities. More importantly, it could strengthen their ability to participate meaningfully in the economy by turning knowledge, talents and ideas into sustainable sources of income.