27 Feb 2022

 Government has, through the Youth Development Fund (YDF), funded 16 youth projects to the tune of P1.46 million in Selebi Phikwe East during the 2017/18 and 2021/22 financial years.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Friday, Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development, Mr Buti Billy said 12 of the funded projects were in services, two in agriculture and the other two in manufacturing. 

Mr Billy said in the 2020/21 financial year, government was not able to find youth projects due to financial constraints as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of the 16 projects, Mr Billy said 12 were still operational, two had closed down while the other two were at procurement stage and awaiting funding.

Mr Billy said most of the youth projects funded by YDF were not coping with high rental charges and limited market for their products and services. 

He said lack of commitment by the funded youth also led to the collapse of some projects.

Currently, Mr Billy said government was engaging the youth using various mechanisms aimed at encouraging them to work hard and sustain their businesses.

The assistant minister said the funded youth were empowered through monitoring of projects and were capacitated on how to run businesses as well as coached through Local Entrepreneural Authority, UNDP and Botswana International University of Science and Technology.

Mr Billy said empowering the youth with entrepreneurial skills was a pre-condition for funding. He said continual monitoring of youth businesses would help in identifying markets for products and services.

He said failure to service loans was one of the recurring challenges, noting that his ministry had introduced the Akola ke Akole programme meant to encourage  the youth to service the loans for others to benefit.

Mr Billy implored youth entrepreneurs that had challenges in servicing their loans to approach the youth office with a doable payment plan.

Mr Billy added that the youth had an entitlement mentality, as such did not see the need to service the loans. 

Additionally, Mr Billy said young entrepreneurs were also reluctant to submit financial performance reports of their projects as a way of updating the office on their projects to timely detect challenges and come up with solutions.

Mr Billy emphasised that prior to funding, the youth were engaged on business acumen through workshops. 

Furthermore, Mr Billy said the closure of the mine in Selebi Phikwe also impacted negatively on youth businesses. 

He added that the COVID-19 restrictions aggravated the challenges of the youth projects, which were already struggling.

Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe East, Mr Kgoberego Nkawana had asked the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development to state the number of youth who had received funding under the Youth Development Fund (YDF) programme in the last five years in the Selebi Phikwe East constituency. 

Mr Nkawana further wanted to establish the number of YDF businesses that were still operational, those that had collapsed and lessons learned from all the funded projects. ends