The United States says the Mandela Washington Fellowship demonstrates the power of youth entrepreneurship in shaping Malawi’s future and in helping young leaders access the knowledge and resources needed to succeed and making an impact in their various communities.
US Charge d’Affaires Jonathan Fischer made the remarks during the opening of Youth Entrepreneurship Training of the Mandela Washington Fellowship held under the theme “Beyond the Passion: Sustainable Business Models for the Modern Youth.”
The initiative has brought nearly 7,200 young leaders from across Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States, including 156 Malawians who returned home with new skills and a determination to drive positive change in their communities.
Fischer noted that the young people’s commitment to giving back is a big part of what makes its programs successful over the long term, and acknowledged the continued partnership.
“The US proudly supports entrepreneurship in Malawi because it promotes mutual trade and economic opportunity, and because it can boost Malawi’s long-term economic growth and job creation, improving quality of life and providing new careers for Malawi’s young professionals” he said.
Sponsored by its Department of State, the programme falling under the Young African Leaders Initiative, (YALI) invites young people in business, civic engagement and public management sectors offering them placements at different US Universities.
Victor Daffrece, a 2025 Mandela Fellowship alumnus said they were taught skills in people management, business management and various areas pertinent in various fields and exposed to quite sophisticated and advanced systems which enabled them to apply the knowledge in home country situations.
The Spark Delight Chief Executive Officer challenged authorities to create a conducive environment such as availability of soft financing products for young people in businesses to thrive.
He indicated that with only seven Malawian participants from his group, the knowledge gained needed to be shared to fellow entrepreneurs, for its success and to enable them appreciate the perspectives they got in the US apply it in the local context.
“The exposure really did a great deal of help to me personally; I look at business from a very different angle now that I went to the US. American people are collaborative, so here in Malawi we collaborate on a number of issues but we are individualistic in the way we do our businesses. So I learnt that as a country we can create our business ecosystem, businesses that can interdepend on each other.
“If I’m in the manufacturing, someone is in the service delivery, someone is in the tech space, we can collaborate to form a business ecosystem. So that was a great lesson from the US”
Some of the participants were given exposure to US startups and entrepreneurships and different manufacturing sites like Tesla and tech giant company Microsoft Corporation.