23 Mar 2015

 Parliament has been informed that a total of 131 youth projects were funded out of the 411 applications received in Maun in the past five years.

Answering a question in Parliament on March 19 on behalf of the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, said for the 131 funded projects, there were 138 beneficiaries of which 62 were female while 76 being males.

Mr Batshu said a total of 262 applicants did not qualify for funding and out of these 133 were from male applicants while 129 were from females.

He, however, said in an endevour to remedy this relatively low uptake of the programme, the ministry had addressed the youth in Maun to encourage them to apply for projects that fell under the niche areas for the district.

In addition, he said, the district office had been instructed to engage on a youth mobilisation drive to generate interest in the programme during the next financial year. Nevertheless, the ministry intends to refinance some of the successful youth businesses to enhance their growth and create more employment for the youth, said Mr Batshu.

MP for Maun East, Mr Kostantinos Markus had asked the minister to appraise the House on youth development projects in Maun for the past five years. He had wanted to know the number of youth projects in Maun; the number of youth categorised by gender who have benefitted from the projects, the number of youth who have applied and did not qualify for the projects categorised by gender.

Mr Markus had also asked the minister if he would consider some serious intervention to improve the situation, taking into consideration the scenario above. ENDS