adminof youths were failing to access loans from the Youth Fund because of poorly prepared project proposals and lack of information dissemination to remote districts of the country.
Disbursing the money in Bindura yesterday, Minister Kasukuwere said his ministry will soon launch a capacity building programme nationwide to help youths come up with acceptable project proposals.
He said he will also deploy more youth officers in all districts in the country to disseminate information regarding the Youth Fund.
“All applicants obviously cannot benefit from this initiative but the high number of youths who are failing to access the loans is because some of our youths are not able to come up with sound business projects. As a ministry responsible for youth empowerment, we will embark on a capacity building programme to empower the youths with a business mind that enables them to access the loans,” Minister Kasukuwere said.
He attacked beneficiaries of the funds who were misusing the funds saying their actions were a drawback to the scheme.
“Some of you are buying cars and marrying instead of investing in sustainable economic empowerment initiatives. The Government will soon unveil a monitoring and evaluation committee that will guard against this,” he said.
Turning to calls by Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono not to indigenise banks, Minister Kasukuwere said his ministry will be guided by the indigenisation laws of the country.
“I don’t want to comment on his (Gono) statements regarding the indigenisation of the banks. All I can say is our actions regarding the financial sector dovetails with the aspirations of this country regarding black economic empowerment,” he said.
Mashonaland Central Governor Advocate Martin Dinha, said the province wanted all banks to meet the indigenisation criteria. He said the banking sector was remitting its profits to offshore accounts while the country was experiencing a liquidity crunch.
“(Governor) Gono is just dreaming. He should wake up to the reality that Zimbabweans are no longer hewers of wood and drawers of water but are a people with an economic vision. There is nothing we can learn from banks based in capitalist Europe since they have failed to save their collapsing economies,” he said.
Advocate Dinha said contrary to reports in some sections of the media that there was factionalism in the province, Zanu-PF was united and solid.
Online Reporter