The Sunday News
Mthabisi Tshuma, Sunday Business Correspondent
MORE than 1 000 youth entrepreneurs and associations will this week start accessing part of the $17 million Youth Relief Fund that was availed as a grant by Government to help those that were affected by the lockdown.
In an update on Friday, Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry said 5 268 applications were received countrywide but only 1 159, representing 21 percent, were successful.
“Turning to the Youth Relief Fund which you all know that the ministry got support of ZWL$17 million to assist youth-led enterprises and associations in recovering from the lockdown, the first batch which opened on the 24th of April and closed on the 4th of May 2020 resulted in 5 268 applications received. Among these, only 1 159 applicants were successful, about 21 percent and they are going to receive the grants immediately,” she said.
Minister Coventry said her ministry was aware of the constraints faced by youths when applying for the fund as a number of their businesses are not formally registered. She said working closely with other relevant authorities, the ministry was taking measures to ensure the youth entrepreneurs and associations were trained so that they register as formal businesses.
“I am greatly aware of the constraints that resulted in such a response and we have developed a programme to address the formalisation of our youth businesses working with the other ministries such as the Women Affairs and SMEs as well as the Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs. This will be a capacity building and mentorship programme designed to raise awareness and train the youths on the benefits of formalised businesses,” said Minister Coventry.
There was a low uptake of rural youths entrepreneurs and associations due mainly to the fact that applications were made online as part of ways to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Minister Coventry said the second batch of applications would be opened as from tomorrow.
“To address the low responses from rural areas I am going to allow for the second batch of applications for another two weeks starting 1 June 2020. The provincial fund committees will be doing an ongoing assessment during the same period. I have also given the Zimbabwe Youth Council (ZYC) up to the end of this month to do a rapid assessment of the first batch through an online and offline survey which the resulting recommendations will further guide the second batch processes,” said Minister Coventry.
She said youth entrepreneurs will continue to be supported through various youth institutions under her ministry so to ensure they sustain the prevailing devastating times. – @mthabisi_mthire.
