City hosts Youth Indaba

WITH more than a third of the youth in the Northern Cape unemployed in the first quarter of 2018, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Madala Masuku, was in Kimberley for a Youth Indaba focussed on young, local entrepreneurs.

This event, held at the Horseshoe Conference Centre on Friday, was a follow-up on last week’s dialogues, where the need to empower the youth of the Province with information on entrepreneurial opportunities and funding available to them were highlighted.

Masuku was accompanied by officials from development funding institutions (DFIs), including the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (sefa) and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF).

Last week, a socio-economic profile of the Northern Cape, released by Stats SA, found that 37.6 percent of residents between the ages of 15 and 34, and 29.5 percent of people under 65, were without work in the first quarter of 2018.

Over this period, 37.4 percent of youth under 24 were not in employment, education and training (NEET).

While this rate has decreased by nearly a whole percentage point, it remains the highest of any province in the country.

The report further showed a higher absorption rate for Northern Cape adults, between 35 and 64 years old (78.2 percent), compared to youth under 35 (62.4 percent), consistent with the higher rate of unemployment among young people.

The long-term unemployment figures for both youth and adults has increased from 66 913 in the first quarter of 2017 to 86 417 over the same period this year.