Social Entrepreneur Spotlight: William Banda

What inspired you to start your company? 

The story begins as I grow up in Peri-urban Lilongwe, Malawi. My family depended partly on agriculture and employment as sources of income. As I grew up, I observed the twin problems of poverty and unemployment that is still on the rise in most Sub Saharan African (SSA) countries, and Malawi is not spared. Youth unemployment and underemployment, especially for the youth seeking full-time, productive and decent employment opportunities is still a challenge for Malawi. However, the country is endowed with natural resources such as water and soils that can support the development of the agricultural sector to enhance its contribution to employment, economic growth, export earnings, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition.

Then I decided to go study agriculture in order that I contribute to solve these challenges. As soon as I graduated from university, I saw potential where others could not see it. Where others saw impossibility, I chose to see possibility. I thought of building a bridge for all. I was determined to change the world, as my graduate friends were busy searching for non-existent jobs. I thought of creating one for my myself and also for many others. I called the project turning classroom knowledge into business ideas. I was determined to create employment for myself and for others. I thought of the increased knowledge and technological improvements coming out each and every year such that there is potential to turn these dormant resources into economic opportunities. That’s when I registered Agritech Enterprise aimed to use my agricultural knowledge and transfer it to farmers for their benefit. 

How has Flame Tree Initiative helped you?

Flame Tree initiative has helped to open my perception to social entrepreneurship. It has helped to build my understanding of both the beneficiary aspect of social entrepreneurship and also the customer aspect. FTI has also sharpened my understanding of a cooperative and how building corporate wealth can be achieved through cooperatives. I also have been able to network and connect with other social entrepreneurs of the same passion through the DEStudio initiative FTI is running here in Malawi.

What advice would you give to other people who might want to become entrepreneurs? 

Entrepreneurship is the route to community development in all aspects. imagine all big organizations we see today were established by entrepreneurs who has passion to change the world in some field. It doesn’t need you to have everything in life in order for you to be an entrepreneur… all you need to have is passion and energy to develop your idea. Trust me. Resources migrate to those who have use for it.

So far, how many farmers have you supported? What greater impact has that had on the community?

As Agritech we have been equipping smallholder farmers to practice modern and improved farming. We offer them mind transforming trainings of practical and innovative ways of production. We have seen their production increase and we aspire to help them much more. 

We have also trained a group of 25 women whom we facilitate to form a cooperative in which they have learnt improved crop and animal management. These women’s livelihoods have changed so they are able to grow and produce more yields than before and hence support their families and also sell some of their produce to their communities.

We also have partnered with youth organizations to conduct trainings in which we are helping young people to embrace farming as a business. We offer these groups investment opportunities along the agriculture value chain and support them to establish their own enterprises like commercial vegetable production. We help them market their produce and link them to farmers. We so far managed to reach out to over 50 youths across the country through such initiatives. We have also started a practical production unit where we produce and invest as Agritech. We use this production site as a place where farmers can come and learn through observation of modern agricultural innovations and initiatives so that they adopt and practice in their farms for increased production. We have engaged over 30 farmers in this model.

How have you pivoted or become more flexible during the covid-19 pandemic? 

The covid-19 pandemic has has really distracted us especially when it comes to conducting physical trainings, but we thought of resolving to work online by practicing online trainings and sharing information related to agriculture. It has also been an opportunity to interact and learn from fellow FTI DEStudio participants through online platforms.

What goals do you have for 2020?

In 2020 we have plans to expand the number of people we impact. For instance, we have identified a model village which we will be training and helping to adopt modern agriculture practices and technologies. We are also currently executing the goal of establishing a youth cooperative of about 20 Malawian graduates from various universities. This cooperative is a model of young graduates which will be creating Jobs for fellow youth through investments in agriculture.