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VP Joice Mujuru

Felex Share Herald Reporter
Youths should pay back loans availed to them for projects under the Youth Fund to enable others to benefit in a revolving manner, Vice President Joice Mujuru has said.
This comes in the wake of reports that CABS has suspended disbursement of part of US$10 million to the Youth Fund following a high rate of default on re-payments.
Thousands of youths benefited from the US$5 million disbursed under the fund, but over 78 percent of those loans are not performing as the youths are not servicing them.

Addressing delegates during the National Youth Conference on youth skills for employment, entrepreneurship and industry growth in Harare yesterday, VP Mujuru said youths should utilise the various funds established for them to access capital for starting projects.

The conference was jointly organised by the Zimbabwe Youth Council and the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment to discuss issues of youth development.
“Tisatsindire mwena weshwa nokusabhadhara zvikwereti ndapota,” VP Mujuru said.

“Come up with ideas designed to establish viable projects in your areas of interest. Identify the opportunities within your communities which can be commercially viable.”
Most youths, she said, were in a hurry to make “quick money.”

“Be patient,” she said. “Most of you are in a hurry to make money and don’t care how they make that money. It is disastrous because the quicker you make that money the worse you are going to use it.”

VP Mujuru said youths were a special group that needed support and protection from Government.

She said the theme for the conference, “Realigning the Youth Sector towards Skills Development for Poverty Reduction” resonated well with the Zim-Asset.

“It is aligned to the social services and poverty reduction cluster which focuses on employment creation, economic empowerment and human capital development,” VP Mujuru said.

“The cluster emphasises prioritisation of vocational and technical skills development, including psychomotor, increased programmes to empower unemployed graduates as well as the need to maintain and promote cadetship programmes.”

VP Mujuru said Government’s interventions should be inclusive enough to cater for various groups with special needs such as the disabled, those living with HIV and Aids, and young women.

She urged young people to explore ICTs as they “create endless possibilities”.

“Besides WhatsApp, Facebook and other forms of social media, I implore you to acquaint yourselves with more ICT issues to do with e-learning, e-agriculture, e-commerce, among others,” she said.

Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Francis Nhema said the Ministry was scaling up efforts to establish more disciplines at various vocational training centres to cater for the changing needs in the market and industrial development.

“We have to ask ourselves who we are and where we are going,” he said.

“Unless we do that, we will not achieve our goals. You are the future, you determine where you want to be. But as we move forward, let us make an introspection and take a holistic approach that will see our society being economically empowered.”

Harare Provincial Affairs Minister Miriam Chikukwa said: “Youth development is in one of the private sectors and Government’s agendas. The youths have the right to determine their future, let us give them a role to participate in economic development.”

The conference was attended by Namibian Foreign Affairs Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, several Cabinet Ministers, deputy Ministers, permanent secretaries and senior Government officials.