F/TOWN CLLRS PROPOSE YDF INCREASE

FRANCISTOWN: Francistown councillors want the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to be increased from P100,000 to P200,000.

On Friday an ordinary council full meeting passed a motion by Botsalano ward councillor Ontiretse Bakaile calling on the Francistown City Council (FCC) to approach the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSEC) with a view of convincing the latter to consider increasing the fund to P200,000.

When tabling his motion Bakaile said the move follows consultations with youth who expressed worry their ventures often fail because the P100,000 funding from MYSEC is not enough to set up a business and run it to a point where it can stand on its own. “It is also important to note that the prices for many supplies required by the youth to set up their businesses have also gone up significantly while the fund itself has remained at P100,000.

This has resulted in many youth omitting other key supplies (when doing their business plans) required for them to effectively run their businesses. This ultimately means that their ventures cannot function effectively once set up,” the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor said.

“For example a normal marketing budget for many youth businesses should be around P40,000. However, YDF beneficiaries cannot get that far in their marketing budget because of the P100,000 ceiling.

Lack of adequate marketing budget is amongst the reasons why some businesses fail,” he added.

Nominated councillor, Modiri Lucas of the ruling BDP also backed the motion.

“I have also personally received complaints from youth that the fund is not sufficient with reference to establishing a new business. If the youth are sufficiently funded it will be easy for them to build sustainable ventures that could create more employment,” he said. He added the businesses in the manufacturing sector are the ones that have suffered significantly because most of the supplies required for such businesses are expensive.

Lucas also countered suggestions from the opposition that increasing the youth fund is likely to lead in the reduction on the number of beneficiaries.

“There is no use continuing to under funding businesses because we want many youth to benefit. I think focus should be more on ensuring the long-term sustainability of businesses that have been funded than on the number of beneficiaries,” he said.

“There is strong evidence that some promising businesses have folded because they were not sufficiently funded.”