Address by the Minister for Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs at the Awarding of Certificates to Youth Enterprise Fund Beneficiaries on Wednesday 23 May 2011
Today we are gathered here to honor our young heroes who have worked very hard to complete repaying their loans with the Youth Enterprise Fund. Over E1 million has been repaid to the funded. This has been possible through the diligence of the over 500 that have already benefited.
I want to congratulate the first 22 to achieve this goal who are going to be honored with certificates today. I have been made aware that a user friendly policy of dealing with repeat beneficiaries has been put in place. This is an arrangement that will guarantee you with an open credit line with Imbita assuring you expedient service in future as you have demonstrated the ability to honor your contractual obligation.
I believe you have much bigger dreams of expanding your businesses and I urge you to consider applying for re-financing from the fund in order to provide even more employment to other young people.
It is encouraging to note that most of the applicants to the fund were women. The high participation of young women in the lending scheme shows that they are committed to reducing the old standing dependency syndrome on their male counterparts.
I want to take this opportunity to challenge the business sector to consider the Youth Fund for their corporate responsibility investments. Government alone cannot successfully effect the development of young people hence private and public partnership is required. The resources allocated from government are far from meeting the demands made through applications. For instance, during the last phase applications amounting to E25 million were received whereas the fund only had E4 million to disburse.
I am expecting even more demand with the closing of the 3rd phase on the 31st of May. Therefore private sector support would be much appreciated.
I challenge every young person to take advantage of the ideals of the Investor Roadmap recently launched by His Majesty. The commitment to improving the ease of doing business in Swaziland makes the game more attractive for young people. A great achievement has been the elimination of requirement to engage services of legal practitioners in company registrations as this has been a hindrance to many young people.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank the Chiefs of these communities where these young people come from for making the best recommendations to the Fund. The Inkhundla office and Youth associations are commended for the oversight they continuously provide towards making the fund the success it is.
I have great news for the stars today. I have informed His Majesty on your achievement as the initiator of the Fund and he expressed an interest to meet you personally. So prepare yourselves for an audience with the highest authority of the land. Your achievement and respect has earned you this rare opportunity.
In closing I would like to once again thank the board and staff of the Youth Enterprise Fund as well as Imbita for this great achievement.