27 Sep 2023

The Ramotswa District has taken a decision to temporarily suspend submission of small stock applications under the Youth Development Fund (YDF) for the current financial year because of poor performance.

Briefing a full council meeting on September 25, Chairperson of the Ramotswa District Council Mr Zaahid Jalal, said the decision was based on the fact that 63 projects had been funded at a total cost of over P6million of which two had been identified through monitoring and were ailing.

“Young people interested in small stock farming have been encouraged to apply for LIMID. A study by Forestry and Natural Resources has indicated that Ramotswa District has a poor grazing land and this poses a challenge given that a large number of applications are on free grazing, from the year 2022/23 YDF rejections, the office received 14 appeals and were presented to the National Appeals board of which all were rejected,” he said.

Mr Jalal said it was regrettable to note that the transfer of YDF to Ministry of Entrepreneurship affected collection of YDF loans and as a result the office only managed 19 percent collection rate.

According to a consolidated report from the District Development Committee (DDC) sectors considered for funding in the district include manufacturing, agriculture and its value chain, agro and ecotourism and ICT.

The report states that since its inception 235 projects had been funded at a total cost of more than P22 million and that the targeted loan repayment had not been achieved.“Challenges include non-availability of beneficiaries on sites during monitoring, non-payment of the loan component, failure to submit reports despite communication during post funding business skills workshops,” said the report. ENDS