WHAT IF WOMEN TURNED THEIR SKILLS INTO BUSINESSES

AG Malaika is a social enterprise that was founded with the intention of enhancing people's lives via education centered around skills as a solution to unemployment and poverty. They provide women and young people in Malawi and other countries with virtual and hands-on trainings in entrepreneurship and vocational skills. Among the courses available are programs in business startup, fashion design and tailoring, hairdressing and cosmetology, cake decorating and baking, and event decoration.

The business concept of Anna Grace Malewezi, the founder and managing director, was to recycle used materials and create reusable products. She subsequently taught herself other trade skills, such as baking and cake decorating, and liked teaching other ladies at a fair price.

After she lost her job, AG Malaika was formally registered in 2017. It was around this time that she gave birth to her kid, Malaika, who inspired the name of the company. This implied that in order to support herself and her newborn, she would need to find another source of money. Due to the lack of jobs in Malawi ,she was unable to find employment that suited her skills and qualification as a graduate. As a result, she took any job that paid enough to cover her child's expenses, as she was by that point a single mother.

When she did manage to land a job, it was below her qualifications and not in her field of study. She continued with it for a few months while doing her business as a side hustle. She chose to leave her work because it was unpleasant and also to focus on her business, which was more profitable than her job. That marked the official start of AG Malaika Skills Hub-Malawi.

The difficulties the business had when it first started were acquiring funds as a sole proprietor with no exposure, which prevented the company from obtaining loans to grow. Hiring staff to assist with business operations and pay expenses out of the meager revenues was another challenge. The plan was to purchase educational materials with half of the fees paid by customers, with the remaining funds serving as the company's profit.

AG Malaika chose partnerships as a means of gaining recognition and expanding its business. They collaborated with organizations such as Dzuka Hub in 2019 to help launch entrepreneurs startup programs and ECAM in 2020 who sent interns to their institution  to obtain managerial and practical experience following their completion of vocational training from any other institution. They then made the decision to further improve our abilities by collaborating with international bakers to teach our Malawian bakers at different skill levels. That assisted them in developing both our skill set and inventory.

They had the honor of participating in the first cohort of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), and They are currently enrolled in the AWE 2024 program, which is training 100 million learners all over the world. They were also one of the Malawian young entrepreneur finalists for the 2019 Total Energies start-upper. They were also among the selected at the Female Macroeconomics Academy where they focused on gender equality in business.

At present, they have broadened their offerings to encompass event and interior decoration services, in addition to providing imported and custom-made things created from recycled materials for homes and occasions. Through practical instruction and virtual instruction for individuals outside Malawi, they have trained over a thousand women and young people throughout Malawi. They are currently operating under AG Malaika Skills Hub-Malawi for their vocational and entrepreneurial skills trainings and Stems & Mor’ Malawi for their events and interior decoration service provision.

AG Malaika is self sponsored from the revenue that they get from its businesses which is used to give back to the unprivileged young people and women from different communities in Malawi who are taught different vocational skills and given start up capital for their businesses. We are open for collaborations, sponsorships and funding to reach out to many in order to solve unemploymet and poverty in Malawi.