Give Entrepreneurs What They Need, Watch Businesses Soar

27 February 2026, Malawi: In May 2025 in Malawi, Mercy Phiri joined the Business Acceleration for Youth project expecting entrepreneurs to chase grants. Instead, working with 61 MSMEs, she discovered they were not lacking ambition, but systems and scale.

The first time I saw the Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing machine running at Brand Consult, one of the firms participating in the Business Acceleration for Youth project, I understood something no workshop could have taught me.

Before that machine, the owner, Vanessa Kwilasya, outsourced her printing, smaller margins, slower delivery, limited growth. Now she produces in-house. That machine did not just increase output. It changed her power in the market. In that moment, I realized: entrepreneurship in Malawi is not about survival. It is about leverage.

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