The ManicaPost
Lovemore Kadzura Business Correspondent
Young and business-minded entrepreneurs with bankable and viable projects are set to benefit immensely from the recently formed Government backed Youth Empowerment Bank.
In an interview, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Dr Desire Sibanda said Government had noted some challenges accessing lines of credit facing the youths who wanted to venture into business.
Dr Sibanda further emphasised that the Youth Bank whose board was already in place would be run effectively and would avoid past mistakes were people who did not deserve ended up benefiting but failed to pay back the loans.
“As a ministry we are putting up a Youth Empowerment Bank to assist young people to access loans and lines of credit. The bank will be effectively run and should not repeat past mistakes of loaning people who had no business management training and experience.
“We have discovered that there are some youths with brilliant and bankable projects but have no capital to transform their ideas into enterprises and industries.
‘‘Though the Reserve Bank is doing its best to monitor lending rates, we feel that the youths who are starting business cannot afford the interest rates,” he said.
Added Dr Sibanda: “We are going to take on board all the youths in different spheres of the economy be it mining, agriculture, manufacturing among others.
‘‘The ministry will be considering Special Economic Zones for youth hi-tech industries to value add our products in the rural areas and create decent jobs.
‘‘We have had discussions with one Chinese company on this subject.”
The ministry, he said, would be inviting youths from the Diaspora to partner with local youth to invest in identifiable projects.
It is believed that Zimbabwe has over 2,5 million people outside the country and most of them are young people. Dr Sibanda said that one way of empowering youths was offering them vocational skills.
“Some of the challenges being faced by young people are limited access to project finance, lack of collateral security, lack of business management skills, poor debt management skills, lack of skills and experience to develop bankable projects, high mobility and inconsistency and lack of international investment management skills.
“The ministry is also developing the Vocational Training Centres — 46 of them will be industrial hubs and centres of industrial skills training and productivity.
‘‘They will in future be self- reliant and be centres of industrial excellency working with the National Youth Service Centres,’’ Dr Sibanda said.
