Elzine Gawaxab-Mushambi: Building and Impact Venture Builder in Namibia

Change Africa Podcast

Elzine Gawaxab-Mushambi is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Impact Tank, Namibia's first social impact venture builder, building new commercially viable businesses that solve social issues.

After almost 15 years in the private sector, Elzine relocated to Switzerland but could not reconcile her privilege with the endemic scarcities of Namibia, most visible to her, access, particularly infrastructure. Moving away from the prototypical impact non-profit model, Elzine's Impact Tank employs a methodological process to impact through sustainable enterprise building focusing on four thematic areas; human capital, food security, green economy and financial inclusion. We explore the entrepreneurial mindset of Elzine, including her research-intense approach to problem identification and examining the scalability of the impact venture builder model. She expands on the 5-step "fail-proof" process of Impact Tank and how it compliments the more common incubation model.

Our conversation also zeros in on some of Impact Tank's ventures like Unearth Artisans, which seeks to provide high-quality artistic work and designs for the DACH (Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH)) region, a response to the massive decline in tourism in Namibia as a result of Covid-19. Elzine also shares her perspective on leadership, her inspiration from Africa's great leaders, her thoughts and parallels between company and nation-building, economic growth, and her vision for Namibia.

Impact Tank's work can be followed via their website https://www.impacttank.org.na

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