18 Nov 2020

Government has been advised to consider formulating unemployed youth graduates allowance policy.

Debating the State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament on Tuesday, Tati West Member of Parliament, Mr Simon Moabi said it was disheartening that youth unemployment remained a challenge despite government efforts to invest in the youth through various youth empowerment programmes.

He thus highlighted the importance of unemployment allowance, saying it would provide the much-needed support to unemployed citizens during economic downturns.

Mr Moabi said by helping households with low income, this would lower poverty levels, affording such households to have the buying power and reduce dependency on government social welfare programme.

He said any stipend to the unemployed graduates would be a welcome move as it would cushion the youth from high expenses that come with seeking employment.

Mr Moabi said the allowance would also encourage people to take socially beneficial jobs, despite some risk of future layoffs.

On the downside, Mr Moabi cautioned that the unemployment allowance programmes could make the graduates lazy in their search for jobs and lengthen the time spent unemployed.

He, therefore, indicated that the policy needed to strike a balance between the positive and negatives. Further, Mr Moabi acknowledged government efforts to lure foreign investors but decried the many bottlenecks that hindered local investors to effectively participate in the economy.

He stated that Botswana had not reached her prosperity as she still had to contend with numerous challenges such poverty, crime, slow process of economic diversification, low food production and rising unemployment, particularly among the youth.

Such challenges, he said could be addressed by effectively promoting and supporting local investors to be key players in the economy. Mr Moabi also urged the government to invest in improving dam tourism citing the Ntimbale dam in his constituency as an ideal destination.

He said the government should drive to improve road networks and infrastructure that would promote the tourism sector.

He complained of the poor status of some of the roads in Tati West, saying the Kalakamati-Zwenshambe road was long overdue. ENDS