Company’s youth empowerment drive wins govt praise
Deputy minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled) Anthony Mavunde
Dodoma. A youth empowerment initiative by a Tanzanian last mile delivery company, RoutePro, has been hailed by the government, with a minister saying it offered the best approach of empowering locals.
Deputy minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled) Anthony Mavunde lauded the initiative by RoutePro, which provided motorcycles and business training to 30 youth in Dodoma, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza and Singida.
“Youth unemployment is one of the major challenges facing our nation…. When Tanzanian companies such as RoutePro take initiatives to provide training and employment opportunities to our youth, we provide all the necessary support they need,” said Mr Mavunde.
RoutePro’s initiative will provide 30 motorcycles to the youth along with training on business and distribution practices as well as educating them on the usage of latest technology to track sales and data management.
The distribution company already has 400 motorcycles doing last-mile distribution for a number of Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods companies, including Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC). RoutePro will also engage with its business partners and other Tanzanian manufacturers to support candidates with stock to distribute and sell in the market. The two parties (RoutePro and the candidate) are to thereafter split the profit by 50/50.
RoutePro operations manager Jaja Mbazila said the distribution company used a data base of the youth who have been working with the company in various distribution projects and selected those who demonstrated hard work and determination to grow.
He noted that apart from the brand-new motorcycles, RoutePro will also give each of the 30 candidates Sh100,000 as part of the start-up package. After 24 months, the motorcycle will become property of the successful candidates with which they can continue to distribute stock.
However, the candidate may choose to enrol into another two-year programme where RoutePro will give them another motorcycle to start another two-year plan.
RoutePro is a Tanzanian distribution company, with five years of experience in last-mile distribution and currently runs over 400 motorcycles across the country, using state-of-the-art mobile applications to track sales and collect data for market analysis.
