Accelerated Growth for SMEs (AGS) Co-creation and Innovation program for 18 Zambian enterprises was launched in a webinar on the 8th of February. The program is coordinated by HAMK in collaboration with Crazy Town, University of Zambia and Mulungushi University.
Support for Zambian businesses to grow and develop
AGS Co-creation and Innovation program offers concrete support for Zambian enterprises to develop their business concepts for future challenges and opportunities in the Zambian market. Companies are working in the field of agribusiness, renewable energy and circular economy.
In his opening words, Professor Yambayamba, Dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Mulungushi University, said:
“Business and growth and development is not only about the money. It’s about the ability of creating wealth. It’s about increasing your capacity and this particular program will help you to have that ability.”
He continued by highlighting the necessity of collaboration of academia and private sector:
“Academia-industry collaboration is very critical for the growth and development of private sector. It’s the universities that do much of the research and innovations. We also bring students on board in this program to work with businesses to help deal with challenges that they have.”
A total of appr. 70 students from HAMK, University of Zambia and Mulungushi University will work in cross-cultural teams with entrepreneurs to solve real-life challenges the businesses have. The program consists of three workshops, two on-line-based and one face-to-face in Lusaka. The workshops will be facilitated by experts from these three universities.
Co-creation and Innovation program is implemented under the umbrella of Accelerated Growth for SMEs program (AGS). The team Leader of the AGS, Mr. Gareth Evans, said:
“A number of businesses have already benefited from the AGS program and it’s great to see so many new kind of enterprises signed up to be part of this co-creation and innovation activity. We are very grateful for HAMK, UNZA, Mulungushi and all the other participants in these activities for the work they put in.
We are excited to start these co-creation and innovation activities. Good thing about co-operation with HAMK is that we want real-world solutions to real-world problems.”
Innovation workshops also serve as a model for local co-creation and a more permanent collaboration platform where cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary professionals meet up to innovate solutions and business models.
For more information:
Ms. Teija Lehtonen
Senior Advisor, HAMK Bio Research Unit
Häme University of Applied Sciences