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Even to those who have been reluctant to take action, it would probably be an indication of one’s lack of constructive imagination to stay away from it. The wisest thing to do for everyone is to take part. The policy is meant to benefit Zimbabweans and it is irreversible as President Mugabe constantly emphasises.
While there is a call for all Zimbabweans to take part in the programme, the youths remain the key group of people that should be seen at the forefront, claiming their share of the cake without hesitation. The programme is one of the strategic initiatives that can put an end to the escalating misery and joblessness rampant in the country.
With the unemployment rate spiking an alarming 95 percent level according to unofficial estimates, the youth are the worst affected at a time when fewer than half a million people in the country are formally employed. Empowerment of youths is a convincing answer to this challenge. The youth empowerment initiative is like a sister programme to the indigenisation policy as they both try to encourage the youth to aim at being their own bosses, at the expense of the traditional retrogressive mentality of tolerating the humility of being someone’s worker each time.
The most painful thing realised in this country is that unlike in many other African nations, the jobless Zimbabweans are educated youths, vibrant and with the desire to put up their efforts, working for their beloved country.
But unfortunately, luck is not on their side as most of the existing companies are either retrenching their employees or they are actually shutting down. The end result is that at the moment there are various cases of individuals who have never tested the trials and tribulations, and of course the good associated with being employed since completion of their studies because there is absolutely no industry ready to absorb them.
The fortunate ones followed the footsteps of their brothers and sisters who packed their pride in their torn pockets to get deplorable jobs in the diaspora. This is not an easy thing to do, hanging up a PhD, or a Masters degree to do the kind of job that is normally supposed to be done by individuals who never attended basic primary education or prisoners to be specific.
In Zimbabwe, it can be realised that accomplishing college or university is no longer much of an achievement like the case before. It seems like almost everyone has attained the highest level of education. This is a blessing for the country, and enjoying the privilege of having the highest literacy level in Africa is indicative that the nation will never fall short of human resources needed to turn around its economic fortunes.
However, for individual benefit, education alone is not the determinant to one’s success in life any more. It now requires a strong vision, a creative mind and an insatiable desire to be one’s own boss as a strategy to defeat the insurmountable job hunting tasks facing the majority of the youths in the country.
Outside this group of educated youth are also millions that did not excel academically but still need to have something to occupy themselves and earn a living. Youth empowerment programmes are the only initiative with the capacity to absorb this force that is constantly being rejected by the country’s dying industry.
In Zimbabwe, the youths are so much advantaged to have a government that directs all its efforts to make sure that the youths are economically empowered. However, a lot still needs to be done. Outside the availing of loans for the youths, the Government, through the concerned ministries, is currently running a chain of capacity building and market linkages training programmes to make sure that youths succeed in doing their own income-generating projects.
In Nigeria, a pilot programme was done in Borno State, the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES). Initiated in 2000 by Hajiya Zainab Kure, the former first lady of Niger State, the scheme targeted at training youths by way of empowering them economically and socially. A survey that was done by one economist showed that after a short period of time, the scheme had succeeded in empowering its beneficiaries by way of vocational skills acquisition, contributing to a change in their socio-economic status.
While this was done after the realisation that the government was doing little to make sure that the youths are economically empowered, the Zimbabwean case is different as there is a government that is fully committed to improve the welfare of the youths.
A number of youths are participating in various self-help schemes that have transformed their well-being irrespective of their poor academic record. In Glenview 8, Harare, hundreds of youths successfully managed to chase poverty and joblessness out of their lives by venturing into carpentry activities.
The complex in that area has actually become one of the largest suppliers of furniture to various outlets in the country. A number of youths working in that complex can testify that as long as one can use his or her own hands wisely, seeking employment at someone else’s door will be nothing but just a waste of time and energy.
Research has shown that there is high tendency for youths to commit crime when they lack the basic things of life, such as employment, food, shelter and education.
For instance, in 2010, a research by the Department of Social Work at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria revealed that youths in poverty have higher rates of juvenile delinquency, crime records and their proximity to drug and alcohol abuse while a lot of them also get involved in various criminal activities, like stealing, pick-pocketing, raping, robbery, kidnapping and other anti-social activities.
The research can be a point of reference to our Government that they need to invest in promoting self-help schemes and establish more alternative channels of income-generating activities before the nation turns into hell. These unemployed youths are also the active, vibrant groups of society that needs to be used as an advantage to the nation by including them in the productive lines of our economy so that they can contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
In such a situation, youth empowerment initiatives will certainly do the nation good by not only creating safety nets for the desperate youths but also for the economic revival of the nation. The jobless youths wandering out and about in the streets should never be neglected; they are a powerful force that the nation can take advantage of in the process of rejuvenating our suffering economy.
The worst development that will never take the nation anywhere productive is when these youths are manipulated by politicians to meet political gains. This should be condemned in the strictest terms.
Instead, Government should devote its efforts to youth empowerment programmes for the benefit of the nation.
*Jephiter Tsamwi can be contacted on 0733854681/ [email protected]
Online Reporter