Minister of Youth, Sport and Art Elvis Nkandu talks 'new dawn' youth empowerment

ZAMBIA’S population is largely made up of young people, with the youth – those between the ages of 18 and 35, constituting 36.7 percent of the total national population.

As such, it has become imperative for Government to critically invest in the youth as a means of addressing the challenges they face if the country is to have meaningful and sustainable development.

This is because the youth form a large part of the productive population of Zambia’s economy.

In his inauguration speech on August 24, 2021 at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, President Hakainde Hichilema acknowledged the important role of youths in the economy. He said the high level of unemployment among the youths, which is currently sitting at 22.63 percent, is of great concern to his government. He said: “…and this will be high on our agenda to address.”

Similarly, at the ceremonial opening of the first session of the 13 National Assembly on 10^th September 2021, President Hichilema said in order to harness the potential of the country’s youthful population towards national development, his government will create opportunities for job and wealth creation.

He said this will be complemented by changing the mind-set and culture of the young people so that they could appreciate their value and attain their fullest potential.

“We want our youth to refrain from engaging in unproductive activities. We will also upscale resource mobilisation to sustain the youth empowerment programmes. In addition, we will create specific preferential public procurement programmes targeting the purchase of goods and services from youth owned enterprises,” he said.

In its manifesto, the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) identified lack of youth participation in decision-making as one of the major challenges the country was facing.

“…as well as the lack of youths and people with disabilities in political leadership, business leadership and decision making positions. [The] UPND has observed some trends in the barriers to women, youths and people with disabilities’ equal participation and representation in politics, commerce and decision-making,” it reads in part.

Nine months in power and the new dawn administration which, like administrations before, has identified among others, youth empowerment as a tool for job creation, is already in high gear on it.

Minister of Sports, Youth and Arts Elvis Nkandu who recently announced new guidelines of the empowerment initiative, says the new dawn administration is planning to create about two million formal and informal jobs between 2022 and 2026.

He says it is for this reason that it is coming up with its own National Youth Policy which will align with the party manifesto.

With the 8^th National Development Plan draft already approved, the new dawn administration held a two-day national youth indaba, to get views from youths across the country on what their desires are.

“For us, the National Youth Policy, which at this point is at formulation stage, is number one to actualising our aspirations for the youths. We are also coming up with a National Youth Development Strategy which will run from 2022 to 2026. The strategy will spell out all these job opportunities for the youths,” he says. 

Simply put, the new dawn administration will take a different approach.

“The second step is that we are going to go to provincial centres to get the views of the people on the National Youth Policy that we are formulating. Mind you, we already announced the new youth empowerment guidelines. We are doing it differently this time around,” he says.

He adds that the ministry has delayed to effectively implement the empowerment scheme because some guidelines were prohibitive.

“We want young people to be able to leverage on something and that’s why we are rolling out these empowerment programmes. So far, we have launched the new guidelines and I am impressed with the response from the youth so far. A lot of them are calling me to make inquiries. That is what we want,” he says.

In the new guidelines, beneficiaries of the youth empowerment scheme will be listed on the Credit Reference Bureau to reduce risks of defaulting by borrowers, a situation that government is trying to avoid.

Government has so far, recovered K21 million from the youth empowerment scheme since September last year. The resources will be channeled towards other empowerment programmes to enable more youths to benefit.

 “This time around, application forms for empowerment will be approved by different approval committees, at various stages of the process. The first category of empowerment will range between K100, 000 to K300, 000, the second level will range from K300, 000 to K500, 000,” he says.

Mr Nkandu adds that the third level will involve an amount that is more than K500, 000, out of which 20 percent will be paid in cash as operational costs.

He said every cooperative that wants to access funds should not have less than 30 members while differently abled people will be given priority in different forms of empowerment.

“This is the agenda that the new dawn government has. We are making accessible that which the youths could not access previously. We are teaching young people to stop relying on handouts and know that they have to work,” he says.

Mr Nkandu says government is providing an enabling environment for youths to thrive.

He says unemployment levels among youths, which are currently high, will drastically reduce by the end of the year, thanks to the recruitment of 30,000 teachers and the over 11,200 health personnel.

“Bear in mind also that we are yet to recruit personnel in the defense and security wings. Plus many other informal jobs will come in form of contracts through the Constituency Development Fund projects,” he says.

According to the Vision 2030, Zambia is aspiring to transition from a low to middle income country by the year 2030 – and youth participation and inclusion has been identified as key in actualising it.

This article was also publishing in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of May 3, 2022. You can read it on this link http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/upnd-vision-of-empowering-youth/