Youth business post impressive success rate
Isaac Pinielo | Monday September 22, 2014 16:03
Having funded a total of 172 projects in Gaborone to the tune of P17.6 million since its inception in 2009, 116 youth projects are still surviving while the remaining 56 have collapsed.
This represents about a 67 percent success rate against a global benchmark of 20 percent.
Gaborone District Coordinator in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, Jacob Ngwako Sekgoni said although it is pleasing that many youth projects manage to survive within the five-year grace period, the numbers are still not enough. “We want these numbers to increase. Our expectation is that more youth businesses should be successful to the extent that they can sustain themselves,” he said. Sekgoni reiterated his concern about businesses, which receive the funding and fail to sustain themselves and survive in the cutthroat business environment.
The Youth Development Fund is an empowerment programme aimed at promoting active participation of youth in the socio-economic development of the country. The fund finances young people to a maximum of P100, 000 to run businesses on a 50 percent grant and 50 percent loan. Nationally, it has been established that many youth enterprises in the start-up phase fail in the first three to five years of the establishment phase. This has been attributed largely to a lack of business acumen to manage the businesses. During the opening of a three-day business awareness workshop held at the National Youth Centre last week, Sekgoni pointed out that government continues to support young business entrepreneurs by affording them market opportunities to penetrate the business environment. He added that the government has also relaxed laws relating to trading and tendering processes such as the 15 percent reservation of the maintenance budget by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, which is reserved for youth owned construction companies.
In 2012/13 financial years, youth companies were awarded P91 million worth of tenders and in 2013/2014, the firms received P206 million worth of tenders. As of now, 20 percent of government tenders have been set-aside for youth, women and disability groups.
Explaining the purpose of the workshop, Sekgoni said it would equip youth with practical skills needed for the development of successful businesses. He said the workshop is a step in the right direction as it prepares the youth to apply for the popular Youth Development Fund, which has a budget of P10 million for all the five constituencies in the Gaborone district.
According to Sekgoni, young people in Botswana are faced with a number of challenges including among others, poverty, high unemployment rates as well as HIV/AIDS.
He noted that young people who graduate with University certificates, diplomas, degrees and other vocational and technical qualifications face difficulties in finding placement in the job market due to skills mismatch and lack of job opportunities.
“This further worsens the unemployment situation as it continually raises its ugly head against the youth who constitute a significant part of the population,” he said. Some young potential entrepreneurs who attended the workshop could not hide their excitement when they related to this publication their expectations of the seminar. 24-year-old Bertha Nnopi of Mogoditshane said the workshop is a good initiative that will afford her the opportunity to learn about business. She also hoped that the workshop will give her some advantage when she applies for the Youth development Fund.
“The last time I wanted to apply for the youth fund I was told that first I have to attend the business awareness workshop,” she explained.
Two of her colleagues, Kentse Rantutu (30) and Tshepiso Lepono (26) were also upbeat about the workshop. “I believe this will give us the knowledge that we need to run our businesses and give us a better chance of success,” said Rantutu. At the end of the workshop, young people were issued with references to attach when applying for the youth fund.