Start businesses to curb poverty, youths urged
YOUTHS should embark on entrepreneurship and agriculture activities to reduce poverty and unemployment among the young people, Chinsali Central Member of Parliament Kalalwe Mukosa has said. Speaking during a one day empowerment seminar held at Chinsali Girls’ Secondary School yesterday, Mr Mukosa said youths could improve their living standards by embarking on income generating activities such as setting up their own businesses and engaging in agriculture. He urged the youths to take advantage of various empowerment initiatives by the Government to embark on business ventures to reduce poverty and unemployment in the country. ‘’The PF Government has created an enabling environment to do business and our region has good climatic conditions for agriculture, therefore, my appeal to you fellow youths is that let us embark on agriculture and entrepreneurship as way to fight poverty,’’ Mr Mukosa said. Mr Mukosa cited aquaculture, gardening, poultry, growing of soya beans and groundnuts as some of the viable farming activities which would give youths income to enable them go to colleges and universities as well as creating jobs for others. He said Government had various empowerment activities such as the youth empowerment fund in the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the Citizen’s Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and the Constituency Development Fund which youths could access and build their own businesses. Entrepreneurship and agriculture had the potential to reduce poverty and the escalating unemployment levels among youths, he said. Mr Mukosa also said fish farming was a profitable venture which could create hundreds of jobs for women and youths. He said it was through creativity and innovation that youths could be financially stable and become self-reliant as opposed to dependence on Government. He advised youths who were still in school to take advantage of the two career pathways to start their own businesses once they completed secondary school education. He urged the youths still in secondary school to concentrate and get good results to enable them access bursaries and scholarships for tertiary education. Mr Mukosa, however, noted with dismay that out a total amount of K517, 379 which was given to 24 youths as youth empowerment fund loans in Chinsali in 2016, only 361,760 had been paid back since then.
We have virgin land of about three quarters (of the district) which is unoccupied and with very fertile soils. This is an indication for great Investment potential,” - Sitabiso Mizinga