Mr Aaron Machaliwa, 22, studying a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics at the University of Zambia in Lusaka, has completed two years of the four year course. He is the eldest child in a family of 5. He has received a partial loan through the Zambia government Higher Education and loans Scholarship Board but his family are unable to make up the shortfall so the grant received from BCA funding will enable him to continue his course.
He is the eldest child in a family of 5. He has received a partial loan through the Zambia government Higher Education and loans Scholarship Board but his family are unable to make up the shortfall so the grant received from BCA funding will enable him to continue his course.
Aaron writes: ‘Upon completion of my degree I intend to start work so as to help out with my sibling’s education. Having worked for a minimum of one or two years I intend to go back to school and pursue a suitable master’s degree in Agriculture economics and an MBA in finance. My areas of interest lie in agriculture farming in areas such as poultry and maize farming, banking and financial markets and real estate development, upon acquisition of necessary skills, knowledge and capital I intend to go into entrepreneurship in the above areas.
Having worked I intend to go into full time entrepreneurship in the areas mentioned above and hopefully open and manage my own consulting firm. The BA in Economics has an agriculture economics course which I intend to take next year at fourth year, this will enable me to acquire knowledge on agriculture markets. The Zambian agriculture industry lacks stable and sustainable manufacturing and processing plants, I also intend to open a processing plant for the processing of maize meal, groundnuts into various goods such as peanuts and cooking oil and the production of chicken feed for poultry farming.
I am the first born with two siblings Edna Machaliwa aged twenty one and Darius Machaliwa aged nineteen. My father currently works for the Lusaka City Council (LCC) and has done so for the past 28 years, even though without any tertiary education, he was born and raised on the Copperbelt where he did his primary and secondary education up to Grade eleven, due to financial challenges he had to drop out and start working. My mother went as far as primary education and she is currently staying on the Copperbelt.
My parents got divorced early on in our lives as children and both later remarried, and I have got other half brothers and sisters. My family and I live in Lusaka’s Makeni area, as children we had to stay with our father after the divorce was finalized due to the reason of him having a stable income to provide us with the basic needs as compared to my mother. We spent our holidays with her. As a family we have had to face challenging situations from been chased away from school for not paying school fees, been asked to vacate houses for not been able to pay rent on time and at times having one or two meals per day.’
The Bachelor of Arts degree in economics is a social science which looks at the efficient allocation of scarce resources amongst competing users. It’s a four year programme offered by the University Of Zambia under the school of Humanities and Social sciences. The programme offers both a theoretical and practical component. The BA programme offered by the University of Zambia requires one to pick an elective course which is called a minor, and my minor is business Administration.