30 Oct 2023

Young people shuld step out of their comfort zones  and apply for citizen empowerment programmes to transform their lives, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi, said.

Addressing Sefhope youth in his Mmadinare Constituency, Mr Molebatsi said there was need for them to take responsibility of their lives and minimise depending too much on their parents.

Mr Molebatsi encouraged young people to seek assistance from Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) to turn their business plans into success.

He said government was unable to employ everybody and therefore should take advantage of opportunities in the SPEDU region to improve their lives by creating employment.

“LEA and SPEDU are here to assist you enhance entrepreneurship,” said he said.

Mr Molebatsi urged them to identify 10 business opportunities in their respective areas, research about them and see how they could develop value chains from them.

Youth were also encouraged to use the Internet to improve their lives rather than spend more time on social media for leisure.

“You can turn your lives around, you cannot make money by blaming other people on social media,” he said. “Use opportunities available to turn your lives around.”

For his part, LEA Selebi Phikwe branch manager, Mr Eric Otukile, informed the youth that his organisation was always ready to assist them, not only with business plans but also with registering their businesses.

Mr Otukile said those who had not started their businesses yet but had ideas should visit the LEA office so that they could be assisted to craft their plans into viable and sustainable businesses.

“Youth of this country should be at the fore-front of innovation so they need to embrace digitalisation and use the available Internet infrastructure to research and turn their lives around. Youth are given priority in almost all the sectors,” he said.

SPEDU representative, Ms Godiraone Barapedi, said the SPEDU region was endowed with a lot of opportunities, especially in the agro-business, tourism and manufacturing sectors.

Ms Barapedi said the organisation aimed to avail a sustainable economy, employment and investment which would ensure the long-term survival of the region by lobbying special dispensations and conducive environment for doing business in the area.

She explained that investors in the SPEDU region enjoyed direct investment incentives which included the 30 per cent government off-take of products produced.

However, she emphasised the need as well as the capacity to produce sufficient and quality products.

“For one to enjoy the incentive, the investor has to produce quality products,” she said. ENDS