How StartHub Africa is supporting Tanzania’s young entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses 

Dar es Salaam. Many university students in Tanzania run small businesses while studying – selling fashion products, producing food items, offering digital services and many others. 

But most of these ventures remain informal and struggle to grow. 

Without access to structured mentorship, financial literacy, and investment networks, many promising ideas often fail to develop into scalable businesses that can create jobs. 

An entrepreneurship support organisation, StartHub Africa, is working with universities, development partners and financial institutions to help young entrepreneurs turn early ideas into structured businesses. 

The East Africa-based organization runs training, mentorship and venture-building programmes designed to help students test their ideas in the market and prepare for investment. 

According to Shakila Mshana, StartHub Africa’s co-founder in Tanzania, the focus is on helping young innovators and founders move beyond survival businesses. 

Ms Mshana says, “Tanzania has many talented young innovators with ideas that can solve real problems… but talent alone is not enough.”  

She says the organisation focuses on helping student founders build ventures that are structured, scalable, and ready to compete in the real market. “Entrepreneurs also need business skills, mentorship and financial systems that allow them to grow,” she says.

One initiative supporting student founders is the Youth Ignite Student Founders Fellowship, implemented under the United Nations Development Programme’s FUNGUO Innovation Programme. 

The programme is delivered in partnership with Westerwelle Startup Haus Arusha and funded by the European Union, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the Government of Finland. 

It brings together student entrepreneurs from universities across Tanzania and immerses them in intensive venture-building bootcamps designed to help founders refine their business models, validate customer demand, and prepare to pitch for funding. 

For Warda Chrisant Fadhili, founder of Art by Palesa from Mzumbe University, the programme helped her rethink how she approached her business. 

She produces handcrafted crochet bags but says she previously struggled to identify her target customers. 

“I was trying to serve everyone, but after the training, I learned how to focus on the right audience and position my products for them. Now I know exactly who I’m creating for and how to grow the brand,” Ms Fadhili said. 

Access to finance remains another major challenge for student entrepreneurs. 

Many young founders lack the financial knowledge needed to structure their businesses in ways that attract funding. 

To address this, StartHub Africa partnered with the CRDB Bank Foundation to run the Uni Launch & Scale programme, where nearly 500 student entrepreneurs took part in the initiative, which focuses on financial literacy and connecting businesses to formal banking systems. 

Along that program, more than 130 participants opened CRDB iMBEJU business accounts, allowing them to transition from informal ventures into businesses connected to the formal financial system. 

Before joining Uni Launch & Scale programme, Wenslaus Kayombo, a student at the University of Dar es Salaam, had a business idea but little clarity on how to make it competitive. Like many of young entrepreneurs, he struggled with pricing and cash flow, leaving his venture uncertain and unable to grow. 

Through the programme’s ideathon, he was introduced to practical tools that helped him break down his idea and test it in the market. 

By speaking to potential customers and analysing different market segments, he began to replace assumptions with real data.  

“I have learned that having a clear business plan, knowing who your customers are, and how to reach them is the key to building a successful and sustainable business,” says Kayombo adding that the training has given him the confidence to turn his business idea into a real opportunity. 

The programme also helped him build essential financial skills, and by the end of the training he had developed a clearer approach to managing costs, setting prices and positioning his business for growth. 

Since 2022, StartHub Africa has also partnered with the University of Dar es Salaam to implement the Startup 101 Pre-Incubation Program, designed to help students test their ideas in real markets. 

The program led to the creation of 29 new ventures, with several teams developing functional prototypes and generating their first sales during the programme. 

One standout venture was Green Tea, founded by Lonyori Ndesse, a student at the University of Dar es Salaam whose product MCHAICHAI, a coffee-inspired green tea, quickly gained traction. 

“The program helped us move from a concept to consistent sales,” she says. “Now our focus is scaling production and reaching more customers.”  

The impact was immediate. Within a single month, Green Tea reached 64 paying customers and generated 644,000 Tanzania shillings (about $ 250) in revenue, making it the top-performing venture in the cohort.  

For Ndesse, the shift was significant from questioning whether there was a market for his product to focusing on how to scale distribution and reach more customers. 

As Tanzania looks to expand opportunities for its growing youth population, supporters of such initiatives say combining entrepreneurship training, mentorship and access to finance could help turn student innovation into businesses that create jobs. 

“The journey doesn’t stop here. StartHub Africa’s plans are underway to expand support and reach more young entrepreneurs. With each business that grows, the potential for job creation increases, helping to build stronger communities and a more inclusive economy,” says Ms. Mshana.