In an effort to accelerate youth innovations in Malawi, MUST Institute of Industrial Research and Innovation (MIIRI) hosted the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) at its Innovation Garage in Thyolo on November 19, 2025.

Among others, the meeting was aimed at strengthening collaboration in youth innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization. 

NYCOM CEO Rex Chapota shared updates on their K2 billion Youth Innovation Fund, which is currently supporting youths at three levels.

“We are looking at youths in the ideation stage who are receiving grants of not more than K5 million. The second group is for those in the growth stage, focused on youth who are already into production or having business operations and for these they are receiving grants of between K5 million and K15 million. The last group is for those at scaling up stage, focused on youths who are aiming for commercialization, and they are receiving a maximum of K30 million grants,” said Chapota. 

Currently, 150 youths are already working with NYCOM, with 85 enterprises already benefiting and the rest are waiting for a structured incubation process, where MIIRI is set to play a major role. 

MIIRI director Professor David Mkwambisi said was delighted with the youth empowerment initiative as reiterated his institution’s readiness to support NYCOM on youth innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization. 

“We have experience and expertise ranging from full incubation framework with SOPs, guidelines, and mentorship models, a state-of-the-art Design Studio for product testing and innovation ecosystem as well as plans to expand the Citizen Science Academy to support youth innovators nationwide,” said Professor Mkwambisi. 

At the end, the two institutions, among others, agreed to have another session to discuss youth innovation; incubation for youth across the three levels; sign of an MoU; have a well-designed training program; expand Citizen Science Academy; explore science innovation technology backyard program; and have MUST system engineers to develop applications to support NYCOM’s innovators.