29 Oct 2015

An official of the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC), Mr Pako Sikuru says they are faced with challenges of Youth Development Fund (YDF) beneficiaries not servicing their loans.

Speaking at a youth seminar in Tonota recently, Mr Sikuru, who is the Central District coordinator of the fund, said some YDF beneficiaries cooperate before the disbursement of the money, but later change their bank and contact details without notifying the ministry.

He said it was difficult to trace some of the beneficiaries, adding that failure to service the loan would deny other youth from benefiting from the programme.

However, some beneficiaries said their projects were not doing well, and it would appear as if they were reluctant to service their loans.

The minister of MYSC, Mr Thapelo Olopeng encouraged beneficiaries to service their loans so as to ensure a good reputation.

Mr Olopeng said defaulters would not benefit from refinancing when they want to expand their businesses. 

Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) deputy chief executive officer (CEO), Mr Thapelo Tsheole encouraged the youth to invest, noting that they could not become rich by saving. 

Mr Tsheole said they should also do away with the perception that investing was for the rich people. He explained that investing was open to everyone, noting that they would get good returns from investing. 

However, the BSE deputy CEO noted that investing has some negative effects, as one could make losses when there was a financial recession.

He cited an example of a farmer who had invested in cattle rearing, saying if there was drought,  all his cattle would probably starve and die and the farmer would have lost. That, he said, was similar to investing. Ends