CHINHOYI – THE Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) Innovation and Business
Incubation Hub is a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship, that’s supporting business
ideas, creating investment opportunities, and has managed to successfully create and register
various companies.
It is a vehicle that drives industrialisation in commercial entities, and has a mission to support
innovators and entrepreneurs in transforming their ideas into technologically feasible
solutions that spur the economic growth of the country.
The innovation hub has registered successful companies such as the Block Leak project,
which comprises CUT Kleene, which makes detergents, sanitisers and dish washers, the dairy
milk parlour, the fish farming project, Black soldier flyer project that deals with stock feed,
CUT Printing Press, CUT CLO, a company in textile and manufacturing, and an artificial
insemination project, which is for animal genetics and insemination.
In an interview the CUT Innovation and Business Incubation Hub Technical Manager,
Engineer Powell Mlambo, said the hub is a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship that
support any business idea and turns it into a profit-making business.
“The innovation hub supports any business idea from anyone, develops it and turns it into a
money-making initiative.”
It is a centre where innovative ideas can be converted to successful businesses.
“Our vision is to be the centre for innovation and entrepreneurship activities in the region and
beyond. We have set up in a way so that we are a centre, if you want innovation and have
innovative ideas to be converted into business ventures come to the innovation hub.
“If you have any entrepreneurship activities that you want to be involved with or skills, come
to the innovation hub. Our mission is to support innovators and entrepreneurs in transforming
their ideas into technologically feasible solutions so that we spur economic growth through
the production of goods and service,” he said.
The hub was for development and nurtures the businesses they help start up.
“We have quite a number of objectives that include developing ideas into business ventures
and close nurturing of start-ups.
“At the hub, we offer advice in terms of business incubation, advice in terms of business
coaching, and technological support to projects and ideas,” explained Eng Mlambo.
He further explained that the innovation hub had created a conducive environmental centre
for business, where different players meet.
“We have created an ecosystem whereby we are constantly identifying investors, academic
researchers, captains of the industry and experts in various fields and we bring them together.
We have created a platform, which allows collaboration which can lead to exciting ventures.”
The innovation hub is not just open to the CUT community but it’s open to everyone who has
an idea, and investors. They have a framework that defines their working conditions, as an
idea that comes is studied by the committee to see if it is worth investing in.
Engineer Mlambo said that almost every idea that had gone into the incubation hub had
transformed into successful businesses and some continue to grow as they penetrate the
market.
The hub is not for people with ideas only, but also for investors.
“We are also calling for investors to come and look at the opportunities available as we are
not just looking for people with ideas only.”
A final year student in Computer Engineering at CUT, Frank Makeba, is working as an intern
at the innovation hub. He won a gold medal at UNESCO Africa-India hackathon competition.
He said the innovation hub had exposed him to a variety of projects.
“The advantage of the hub is you get exposed to a variety of projects. For example, if you are
working at a small company or software company, you will be concentrating on a single
project, here you get a chance of critically thinking everyday as people come with different
projects. At the hub, you are exposed to bigger problems from any field like in agriculture.”
