19 Sep 2019

 Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Kago Ramokate has cautioned young people to be mindful of their actions and draw lessons from their mistakes to become better entrepreneurs and leaders.

“As we develop and grow, it is important to always have the consciousness that will help us move in the right direction,” Mr Ramokate said during the Youth Business Symposium in Francistown on Tuesday.

He said the ministry continued to struggle with a number of youth who were failing to repay their Youth Development Funds (YDF) loans while they were also not forthcoming with reasons that made it difficult for them to pay.

Mr Ramokate said as a way of encouraging young people to repay, the ministry continued to gravitate towards exposing complying youths with bigger and better platforms such as the annual youth business exposition.

He said such opportunities often gave the youth the leverage to network and further expose their businesses to a wider market.

He said the symposium should be able to motivate and encourage beneficiaries to appreciate the importance of loan repayment.

Mr Ramokate said their responsibility to speak on behalf of the youth would be much easier and carry a lot of weight if the youth complied with terms and conditions of the YDF contract.

“Your actions as youth who are running businesses should push the ministry to speak on your behalf and not against you,” he added.

Mr Ramokate explained that the ministry helped finance youth ideas while the implementation of such businesses was with young people. He added that one of the reasons the youth were failing to comply with loan repayment terms was because some of them abandoned their businesses after being funded as they used the funds earmarked for projects for other purposes.

“There is no need to abandon your ideas after convincing the ministry to believe in them,” he said. The permanent secretary noted that some of the youth were missing out on available opportunities because they were still tied up with YDF loans.

He said while young people did make mistakes, some of them were torch bearers who should continue to cooperate with the ministry and inspire others to work hard and comply with their loan agreements.

Director of Business Services from Botswana Investment Trade Centre (BITC), Mr Gaorekwe Gaorekwe advised young people to stop the mentality of getting into entrepreneurship because everyone was doing so as that would result in failure.

He further advised the ministry to take action against and penalise young people who did not repay YDF loans, as it disadvantaged other youth acquiring the same financial assistance.

District Economic Development Committee (DEDC) representative, Ms Dorcas Mgadla also advised the youth to change their mindset and believe they could run successful businesses.

She further urged them to be committed and have integrity in their projects. ENDs