25 Mar 2014

Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Mr Shaw Kgathi has told Parliament that the interventions on youth empowerment and development were yielding positive results.

Presenting the ministry’s 2014/15 financial year budget proposal of P757.3million, he said initiatives such as Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) Youth Development Fund (YDF), Back to School, Internship Programme, National Service and Life Skills Programmes were introduced to enable young people to play a meaningful role in the economy.

He said under the YDF, a total of 963 projects had been funded to the tune of P91.4 million creating employment opportunities for 1 163 young people during the 2013/14 financial year.

He explained that under YES, 1 801 young people had graduated from the programme and attached to various government programmes and the private sector. He said 543 participants have exited the programme since inception on account of finding employment elsewhere and furthering their education.

When presenting the development budget for the 2013/14 financial year, Mr Kgathi requested that P8.2million be allocated to ministry headquarters, of which P2.6 million of it will to develop the ministry’s IT Infrastructure project in regional and district offices to improve service delivery, while P5.6 million will finance completion and final payment for Kanye Records Centre.

Mr Kgathi also proposed that the sum of P4.4million be allocated for library facilities. He said funds will be used to settle final accounts and procurement of furniture and equipment for Jwaneng, Molepolole, Tonota, Serowe and Ramotswa libraries and for government contribution towards Robert and Sara Rothschild Family Foundation Projects.

Mr Kgathi asked for P3.3million to finance completion of Gaborone Multipurpose Youth Centre and P90.7million for the construction of Francistown Stadium.

The sum of P17million is required for the design and construction of phase one of the National Performance Arena in Gaborone. Under the recurrent budget, Minister Khathi submitted a request of P134.5million.

The largest share of this budget will go to the Botswana National Sports Council in the sum of P71.4million to be distributed to the national sport associations and the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC).

He proposed that the Department of Youth be allocated P354million, which he said represents a substantial increase of P177.5million to the current year’s allocation.

He said this was attributable to the fact that the allocation for National Service Programme has been budgeted for under this department.

The programme’s total budget is P178million which will go towards payment of National Service Allowances while the remaining P52million will cater for other running expenses.

Mr Kgathi informed the house that the Botswana National Service Programme (Tirelo Setshaba) will effective April 1,and will become a new component under the Youth Empowerment Scheme.

He said its aim will be to engage youth in meaningful community development programmes within their localities while giving them the needed experience for the world of work.

He further submitted that Department of National Internship Programme be allocated the sum of P72million for interns allowances and the Youth Development Fund will be allocated P120million.Ends