22 Mar 2021

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Tumiso Rakgare, has commended young people in Tsabong for using the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to improve their livelihoods.

Mr Rakgare was speaking during a tour of the YDF projects in Tsabong recently.

He appreciated the youth for holding on, despite challenges they faced in business and also encouraged them to expand their businesses as well as explore market for their produce.

The development, he said, would create more employment opportunities as their businesses would expand even beyond Botswana borders.

Mr Rakgare noted that the YDF programme had over the years been able to assist the youth demography to improve their livelihoods.

The minister encouraged the youth to focus and not allow themselves to be derailed from their business and always pay back their grants

He toured the YDF project of a fashion designer, Ms Osah Taele, who was funded to the tune of P100 000 in 2013. 

The project was hailed as a success story in the Tsabong Sub-district as the owner was able to substantially improve her business and her livelihood.

Through her profit, Ms Taele was able to penetrate the property market, where she built three LA2 houses that she leased out to government departments.

The YDF beneficiary appreciated the programme, adding that in 2015, she was able to improve her business through procuring an embroidery machine.

Currently, she said, she had employed five people.

Plans were underway to grow the business further since she was currently working on developing her business plot and expected to move out of her rented space in future.

Another beneficiary, who ran an innovative retail bakery in Tsabong, Ms Barati Ntau, said the project was relatively new; having been operational for three months. 

She said the bakery offered innovative quality baked goods and Kgalagadi unique products such as motlopi coffee. So far, she said the project was taking off successfully as she offered good customer service.

Ms Ntau started her project later than expected for the reason that bakery equipment prices had gone up hence that affected the YDF budget which had been made initially.

She experienced challenges in her business such as electricity outages as there were frequent power cuts in Tsabong. 

However, she expressed optimism that she was relatively new in business and she would give it her best shot. 

So far, she said, she has employed three people.

The success of the YDF projects in Tsabong was recently appreciated in a council meeting. 

In his remarks, the Tsabong Sub Council chairperson, Mr Ronald Baitsewe stated that in the 2020/2021 financial year, 70 out of 72 projects financed under the YDF were operating while two of them had collapsed.

 

Recently, he said, eight youth projects were funded to the tune of P788 543.46 where five of them were small stock production, one was beef production, one was dairy goat production while one was a horticulture project, he said. ENDS