14 Feb 2017

Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Francistown district coordinator, Ms Minkie Bokole says repayment of Youth Development Fund (YDF) loans is slow.
Ms Bokole said in an interview that some beneficiaries were not forthcoming in servicing their loans.
That, she said such frustrated the programme objectives with regard to job creation and empowerment.
She said since its inception in 2009, about 675 youth had shown interest in the programme while only 317 were legible and P 27.5 million  was used for funding with only 2.4 per cent of the amount paid back for the Francistown district.
Of the 317 projects funded, she said 226 were operational and 579 job opportunities were created for other youth.
“Failure to service the loans is worrisome because some businesses are running but the owners are reluctant to pay.
This does not only affect the ministry but other youth as well,” she said.
However, she said  even though there were strategies in place to recover loans, there were some challenges in that some submitted false monthly records while others had relocated from their initial place of operation without notice thus making it difficult to monitor projects.
Moreover, she said other beneficiaries had opened different accounts from the ones that the youth department was signatory to in order to deny the department a chance to monitor transactions related to the account.
Another concern, she said was that despite the initiative’s aim to create employment opportunities for other youth, some beneficiaries dismissed employees once their three month grace period  had elapsed.
Further, she also said some of the projects had collapsed as a result of poor business ethics and lack of commitment.
However, she indicated that the department was alive to some of the challenges that some businesses were faced with which included, among others, shortage of operational space as well as high rentals which diminished returns.
As a result, she said they were working closely with the Francistown City Council and other stakeholders to come up with a long lasting solution to such challenges. ENDS