11 Jul 2017

Palapye Administrative Authority (PAA) has since the inception of the Youth Development Fund (YDF) received over P25 million that benefitted Lerala/Maunatlala and Palapye constituencies and some villages from Serowe North, Mmadinare and Serowe South. 

To date, over P185 000 has been recovered as part payment by beneficiaries and over P2 million is still owed. 

This is according to PAA Sub-district coordinator, under the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Letlogile Seoforeng. 

Mr Seofereng stated in an interview that 261 benefitted with businesses ranging from salons, catering, information and technology and agriculture. 

These businesses, he said were doing well as opposed to those engaged in construction and engineering. 

Out of the 261 funded projects, Mr Seoforeng said 158 were operational, while 19 had collapsed. 

Those operating, he said had created employment for 316 individuals. 

Mr Seoforeng decried payment failure by beneficiaries, explaining that the loan part of the fund attracted no interest, save for those who defaulted, who were charged five per cent a month.  

Mr Seofereng stated that even those whose businesses were doing well, were failing to service their loans.

“It is well stated that the 50 per cent is revolving funds that need to be fully serviced by the beneficiaries,” stated Mr Seofereng. 

The ministry, he said was mandated to empower the youth. He reminded beneficiaries that YDF’s main objective was to promote active participation of youth in the socio-economic development of the country as well as encourage out of school, marginalised, unemployed and underemployed youth to venture into sustainable and viable income generating projects to promote the development of competitive, sustainable and growth-orientated citizen owned youth enterprises. 

The other purpose of the fund, he said was to reduce rural-urban migration by making it attractive to start growth-orientated enterprises in rural areas and creating sustainable employment opportunities for young people through developing of sustainable projects. 

Mr Seoforeng noted the department realised that sometimes project collapsed because they were not well taken care of and consequently failed to produce desired results. Other challenges faced by youth projects, he said included high rentals as most of rent places they operate from. 

A youth involved in architect and construction said his business was not doing well despite many construction activities going on in his area. 

Mr Kabelo Mooko said he was expected to register with the Architect Registration Council and that required a lot of money. 

He said youth businesses were not well established and needed to be assisted citing tenders as one area where they needed assistance because it was something that most business relied on for survival. 

Mr Mooko indicated that most youth were concerned about the high rate charges of Environmental Impact Assessments, Physical Planning Unit and Commercial. 

Also, he said most were not aware that if their business were not operating, they should consult with Companies and Intellectual Property Authority, so that their business could be freezed and not accumulate annual returns and also to avoid penalties when activated. 

Others especially those into catering said they were faced with shortage of manpower as some youth were reluctant to work for their peers. ENDS