BIG YOUTH BOOST

GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOCATED $2MILLION FOR YOUTHS BETWEEN 18 AND 30 YEARS FOR BUSINESS VENTURE

Youths should not only be job seekers but job creators as well, says Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

And, to boost young entrepreneurs, Government has allocated $2million which can be accessed by young Fijians between 18 and 30 years to boost their business ventures.

Yesterday, while having a

session with Fiji Electricity Authority staff during their Eid celebration, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted the allocation made in the 2017-2018 national budget to empower youth. “We want to encourage job creators, not just job seekers. The Young Entrepreneurship Scheme—or YES, as it will be known—will offer grants up to a maximum of $20,000 to Fijians between the ages of 18 to 30 to develop or expand innovative business ideas.

“We have some very smart young graduates who will want to develop mobile apps, etc.

“This is a partnership with the private sector, and the CEO of ANZ Bank has agreed to chair a panel that will assess the applications,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Similar programme

This is similar to the Commercial Agricultural Scholarship Programme, which encouraged young people to enter commercial farming by issuing them a 99-year commercial lease and providing a start-up grant.

Also, in the next fiscal year, through a pilot programme, 20 talented and promising youth workers will be recruited by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to work directly with communities. These workers will be selected using the Open Merit Recruitment System and will be paid for full time employment.

“We want to capture the energy and imagination of these young people to help develop other young people in Fiji.”