Government urged to do more as the Youth Empowerment Bank visits Checheche.
Platform for Youth and Community Development (PYCD) welcomes the effort being done by the Youth Empowerment Bank in their endeavour to raise the status of young people both in the rural communities. On 31st of May 2019, the Youth Empowerment Bank visited and trained 58 young people in Checheche on how to access loans from the bank. The bank is giving loans to the youths who are in the agricultural sub – sector like piggery, bean farming and poultry. The bank promised to offer three types of loans in the form of working capital, order finance and invoice discount. What is restricting is that on all the afore – mentioned loans, the bank would need collateral.
It is a fact that the majority of the youths in rural communities’ lack collateral security. This is the basis for which PYCD recommends that the bank be encouraged to provide more services and participation to modify on those services announced at the training.
The initiative by the Youth Empowerment bank is promising only if it aims at empowering the young people, because it does not only create jobs, but also enhances economic participation of young people in community development.
Complimentary to the proposed lending facilities, PYCD strongly believes that partnership between YEB and local based civic society would go a long way in promoting the development of youth led projects. It is prudent for the Youth Empowerment Bank to partner local CBOs so as to ensure that the funded projects are secured for the purposes of sustainability. The partnership will ensure a social, commercial and environmental sustainability that protects the noble projects to partisanship and collapse due to lack of supervision. The Youth Empowerment Bank is providing a restricted loan amount not exceeding RTGS2000 to the youths, a figure that may not rescue the young people from the debilitating and prevailing economic environment. This figure can significantly slow or act as a hurdle to the promised youth entrepreneurship.
While measures to alleviate poverty among the youth are lauded, the current approach which is restrictive to a single sub – sector is likely to contribute little to the objective of improving the current state of affairs of the rural youth.
Platform for Youth and Community Development encourages the Youth Empowerment bank to consider other sub – sectors like carpentry, welding, metal fabrication, catering and cosmetology. This recommendation is cognisant of the fact that most youths are venturing into entrepreneurship not as a business but as a form of livelihood to escape from poverty.
PYCD is seeing an opportunity in which Green fuel can be roped in to play a positive role. We are ready to create a platform that offers life skills training that can then be the basis for the young people to network in a manner that ensures that the loans they get from the Youth bank and any other potential funding partner are used efficiently and profitably to improve the position of young people in the community.
We remain positive and ready for dialogue and engagement.
