Mwansabombwe District Commissioner Morton Sikazwe says youths are the anchors of national
development.
Mr Sikazwe said the youth empowerment programmes will help a number of youths to contribute positively to the development of the country.
He was speaking during a stakeholders’ sensitization meeting on youth empowerment programmes held at the resource centre yesterday.
Mr Sikazwe said the district has a total of 123 registered youth
groups and nine youth enterprises and that 11 more youth groups will
be registered soon.
He disclosed that last year 12 youth groups were empowered with loans
from the Ministry of Youth and Sports while 29 youth groups were funded under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) grant component this year.
Mr Sikazwe said the robust empowerment programmes has resulted in the
formation and registration of more youth groups for them to access the
funds.
The District Commissioner however said there is need to capacity build the youths before empowering them to avoid mismanagement of funds.
He also requested the ministry of youth to increase the allocation of grants to the youths so that they are engaged in projects which will enable them transform their lives.
Meanwhile, Luapula Province Youth Coordinator Tobias Tembo who facilitated the meeting called for mindset set change among the youth.
Mr Tembo also outlined a number of youth empowerment programmes being
implemented by the ministry.
He named youth skills development programmes being implemented in partnership with TEVETA as the national youth scheme which is designed to
support vulnerable youths to start micro businesses
Other programmes include general youth empowerment, youth procurement
programmes and community youth scholarships among others.
He has since called on stakeholders in the district to help identify vulnerable youths who can benefit from the funds.