Youth entrepreneurs� fund is born

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday March 23, 2015 15:31

Parliament was told on Friday that this is the government’s intention to broaden its scope.

Kgalagadi North Member of Parliament (MP) Itumeleng Moipisi who tabled the motion, said youth development and empowerment are one of the priority areas for government in its drive to reduce youth unemployment and poverty. “This transformation is meant to tackle youth unemployment. It is also in line with the BDP manifesto, which reiterates job creation as number one priority,” he said.

Moipisi also said Botswana Aids Impact Survey report of 2013 by Statistics Botswana showed that youth unemployment rate stands at 28.7 percent.

“This poses a great challenge especially that the majority of people (60 percent ) in this country are youth. There is a window of opportunity to broaden CEDA and accommodate other sectors to develop the youth,” he said.

Moipisi further said CYFF has funded 594 projects at a tune of P238 million, which created 2369 jobs, adding that it also pumped P145 million into 108 youth owned projects which created 1027 jobs in other sectors apart from agriculture.  Moipisi also said other sectors that would be considered for inclusion will include Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Tourism, Entertainment, Tailoring, Services and Leather works. He added that they have 1081 interns out of 5934 who are in ICTU.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Slumber Tsogwane, said he wanted more youth to take advantage of the tourism and farming sectors.

Gaborone North MP Haskins Nkaigwa said he does not support the motion since the government had not been specific whether the current programmes like young farmers fund and youth empowerment fund are failing or not.“So far CEDA is catering for all people. I believe this motion comes from BDP youth wing congress and the leadership. has pressure to from the youth. The only problem with CEDA is that the requirements it needs are complicated for people including youth,” he said.