Lillian Mbayiwa, Old Mutual Zimbabwe's marketing, public relations, and sustainability executive.

Old Mutual Zimbabwe says its investment in start-ups through its innovation hub is paying off three years later.

The group opened its Eight2five innovation hub in 2020 with the purpose of "creating a place where dreams and ideas can be realised."

This week, Lillian Mbayiwa, Old Mutual Zimbabwe's marketing, public relations, and sustainability executive, provided an update on the hub.

She cited the hub as one of Old Mutual's successes in information and communications technology.

"When we opened the Eight2Five Innovation Hub we realised that a big pain point for entrepreneurs is having sustainable growth and formalising their ventures," Mbayiwa said.

"With that in mind, we wanted to ensure that entrepreneurs have a marketplace for their products with more prominent companies, so we allowed entrepreneurs from the hub to provide various services to the Old Mutual Group."

According to Mbayiwa, a few hub businesses have begun delivering software solutions to Old Mutual Zimbabwe and Old Mutual Malawi.

"The aim is to promote SMME development and participation within our supply chain," she went on to say.

Mbayiwa reiterated the group's commitment that its hub will eventually solve poverty issues.

"We believe that long-term solutions to poverty, inequality, and unemployment are education and job creation. In all of the communities where we operate, we support education, skill development, and entrepreneurship initiatives," she said.