By Fezile Mkhatshwa
The Small Enterprises Development Company (SEDCO) and Enactus Eswatini have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen youth entrepreneurship and support student-led enterprises amid rising unemployment.
The agreement, signed at SEDCO’s headquarters in Mbabane, formalizes a long-standing collaboration between the two organizations and outlines a structured framework for enterprise training, incubation, mentorship, and market access support for young innovators.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, SEDCO Chief Executive Officer Khethiwe Mhlanga said the partnership reinforces the organization’s mandate to support small businesses and emerging entrepreneurs, particularly youth entering the economy.
“We have always prioritized empowering entrepreneurs because small enterprises are the backbone of our economy. This MoU strengthens a relationship that has already demonstrated impact and enables us to invest intentionally in young innovators shaping the future of business in Eswatini,” she said.
Mhlanga noted that the partnership will help facilitate the registration of youth-led companies and improve access to technical and financial resources, which are often difficult for new graduates and start-ups to obtain.
On behalf of Enactus, Country Director Sabelo Dlamini described the formalization of the partnership as both timely and necessary, given the widening gap between graduate output and available employment opportunities.
He revealed that of the 15 higher education institutions in Eswatini, about 25,000 graduates are produced annually, yet the labor market absorbs only around 1,000.
“This means only 1 in 25 graduates secures formal employment, while the remaining 24 often find themselves in a vacuum. Partnerships like this help us turn that vacuum into a space for innovation, enterprise, and self-employment,” Dlamini said. “We cannot continue training graduates for a jobless market; we must invest in training them to create jobs.”
Dlamini added that while student projects developed at tertiary institutions often show strong innovation potential, many struggle to commercialize due to limited technical capacity and financial backing. He said SEDCO’s enterprise development expertise and infrastructure would help bridge this gap by providing formal business registration support, incubation, and market linkages.
Student leaders also welcomed the partnership. Sinegugu Dlamini, Chief Executive Officer of Enactus at the University of Eswatini’s Luyengo Campus, said that access to enabling resources and strategic partnerships remains critical to transitioning student ideas into viable businesses.
“All we need are enabling resources and strategic partnerships. Students continually develop initiatives that address real community challenges and are environmentally sustainable. With the right support, many of these ideas are ready to take off,” she said.
She highlighted Nutri Bloom, a high-grade organic fertilizer developed from discarded broiler chicken feathers in Mkhulamini, as one of the campus’s flagship projects supported by SEDCO. The innovation was recently ranked fourth among the most innovative projects of its kind worldwide.
“Our fertiliser is ready for the market and can be used by farmers for crops, smaller gardens, and in-house plants while also protecting the environment. What excites us most is the potential for scale. This partnership gives us confidence that projects can move beyond competitions into sustainable, registered enterprises that create jobs,” she said.
The MoU is expected to facilitate collaborative programming between SEDCO and Enactus, including enterprise development training, incubation support, mentorship opportunities, and joint resource mobilization efforts to strengthen student entrepreneurship ecosystems across institutions of higher learning.
For SEDCO, the agreement aligns with its strategic focus on inclusive enterprise development and youth empowerment. Enactus offers a structured pathway to sustain and expand student-led ventures that tackle socio-economic challenges through innovative business models.