By Chisomo Phiri
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost )A well-known entrepreneur, Mathews Mtumbuka,has urged Catholic men in the country to adopt entrepreneurship as a means to achieve economic empowerment.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Catholic Men Association in Mulanje on Thursday, Mtumbuka emphasized the importance of building wealth through hard work and dedication.
“Many men fail to progress because they’re ashamed to start small,” said Mtumbuka.
He added:”No one becomes rich overnight unless they are thieves.Honest business takes time and hard work.”
Mtumbuka encouraged the participants to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, which he believes can transform not only their lives but also the nation’s economic landscape.
The conference provided a platform for spiritual reflection and economic dialogue, bringing together Catholic men from across the Archdiocese of Blantyre.
Mtumbuka is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO ) of Weagle Holdings Ltd, trading in energy, Information Technology, management consulting, and retail (supermarkets, beverages, and distribution of FMCGs).
Headquartered in Lilongwe and with ten operating units, Weagle Holdings Ltd employs more than 80 people (including 10 graduates), with 70% of them young, i.e., aged 18 to 30 years, and nearly 40% of them women.
Weagle subsidiaries have an operating presence in Mzuzu, Mzimba, Jenda, Salima, Golomoti, and Lilongwe.
As a private sector executive, he rose to the ranks of CEO and led two international engineering companies before going full-time into entrepreneurship in April 2023.
He was the founding MD of Helios Towers Malawi after successfully leading UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education – an International Organisation that provides Broadband/Internet and other education technology services to hundreds of universities in 26 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Previously, he worked as IT Director for Airtel for 8 years in Malawi, Rwanda, and in a regional role at Airtel’s Africa Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, covering 14 countries in Africa.
Prior to that, he worked at Malswitch (now NITEL) in Malawi and Shell Exploration and Production – Europe based in Aberdeen, UK.
At Shell, he was an IT Service Delivery Coordinator with a scope covering 8 countries in Europe including the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, and Ireland among the major operations.
He was also President of ConnectIT, an association of 100 young IT Professionals working for several Shell companies across Europe, organizing the professional development of fellow young professionals.
He has taught as an adjunct Lecturer in Management of Technology at the Business School, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor affiliated with Chandigarh University, which ranks among the top 10 private universities in India.
Professionally, in 2011, at the age of 33, Mtumbuka became the youngest engineer to be elected the President of the Malawi Institution of Engineers (MIE), a record he still holds.
He currently sits on boards of several companies and organizations in Malawi including NBS Bank, NICO Technologies where he Chairs the Board, NICO Pension Services Ltd, and is Council Chair for Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).