22 Jul 2019

 Young people have been urged to pursue agri-businesses to help the country be self-sufficient in food production.

A junior business advisor at Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise (STRYDE), Ms Dimpho Masike said in their quest to empower youth to be self-sustainable, they encouraged them to play various roles in growing the agri-business sector as it had a lot of opportunities which could be exploited.

Ms Masike was addressing young people at a Youth Development Fund (YDF) orientation workshop organised by the Department of Youth in Jwaneng recently. 

“It is every country’s dream to be self-sufficient as far as food security is concerned. As STRYDE, we also teach about agri-business during our training. Since youth are the future, we have decided to teach them about opportunities in agri-business and how they can use their skills to support existing agri-businesses,” she said.Furthermore, she urged them to utilise the STRYDE training programme to acquire business related skills such as financial management. 

Ms Masike said such skills could help them start robust businesses that are sustainable.

For his part, the programme officer in the Department of Youth Mr Boikgapo Lemmenyane encouraged the youth to apply for businesses that they had skills in, since they would be involved in their day-to day running. He also urged them to prepare robust business ideas and plans to increase their chances of approval.

He also noted that even though the objective of the YDF was to empower youth through sustainable and viable projects so that they could contribute to the country’s development, not all applications would be approved due to financial constraints. Mr Lemmenyane urged them to submit applications on time with the relevant documents to avoid disappointment.

One of the youth, Mr Tumelo Fembo acknowledged the government’s initiative of encouraging youth to contribute towards the socio-economic development of the country and providing orientation, which he said was an eye-opener. 

He also acknowledged the presence of other stakeholders such as business licensing organisations at the orientation. This, he noted, gave young people the opportunity to learn about various aspects of businesses they want to pursue.

However, Mr Fembo noted that the application process for YDF involved a lot of processes, which needed a lot of time. 

He said the government should consider organising orientation workshops before application dates are released so that they can have time to prepare. ENDS