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From $1 million allocated for youth projects in Masvingo through Sedco, only $195 000 has been disbursed with the rest lying idle in the bank.
The money meant for youth projects is managed by CABS and CBZ.
The provincial leadership has raised concern over the low uptake of the youth fund and an ad-hoc committee is planned to look into the bottlenecks that could be hindering access to the fund.
Speaking during the Provincial Development Committee (PDC) meeting in Masvingo on Friday, Masvingo provincial administrator Mr Felix Chikovo urged the committee to establish an interim committee, which would be mandated to look into the issue of funds.
The committee comprises sector committees and each sector gives a synopsis of all developmental initiatives under way and funds allocated for each project.
Mr Chikovo said in some cases failure to access the funds had nothing to do with stringent conditions but many youths in the province had little information on how the funds could be accessed.
“We are worried with the slow uptake of the funds but before we attribute it to the tough conditions that applicants need to meet before getting the funds, let us look at how many young men and women are aware of the existence of the fund. If the district administrators are not aware that the Government has availed funding of this nature it means a lot of youths out there are not aware of this,” he said.
“I suggest we intensify information dissemination on this because our youths should benefit from such a noble Government initiative.”
The PA also noted that the approval process had a lot of challenges and appealed to the financial institutions handling the youth funds to decentralise some of the processes.
“I feel there is a need for the approving process to be done at provincial level. It is not fair for an application, say from Mwenezi, to be processed in Harare. Government should allow sector ministries at provincial level to manage some of the funds, for easy accessibility by youths in rural areas,” he said.
Online Reporter