Nambara Stefanus
NKURENKURU – Kavango West Regional Governor Sirkka Ausiku last week said the region wants to establish a database of the youth involved in businesses which she believes will assist with finding interventions.
“For the youth who are engaging themselves in business, we want to come up with a database to know who they are, what type of support they want, so that if we have to intervene, we know who we need to engage, whether it’s those who are starting or those who have started and maybe are struggling in business,” said Ausiku.
This, she revealed, after concluding the two-days consultative meeting between her office, the Kavango West Regional Youth Forum and young entrepreneurs which aimed at engaging young entrepreneurs.
According to her, there is an urgent need to train and assist young business entrepreneurs for them to flourish.
“What we have realized is that sometimes they just get materials and nobody comes to train them on how to manage their finances or market their businesses. And so, these are the support we want to offer them,” she said.
She is optimistic the youth will succeed in their business ventures once they receive the necessary support. The meeting saw representatives from all the eight constituencies of Kavango West present their business ideas that will complement the 121 youth-owned rural enterprises, an initiative brought up by the government.
Many of those that attended the meeting expressed the excitement saying the initiative is a noble one which would help with the fight against high unemployment rate among the youth in the region and bring about positive changes in their lives.
“When this initiative was first introduced to us, we had doubts, but today we were given a clear picture that we are being driven to work in order to tackle poverty we are facing in our communities,” said Valentinus Munkara, a youth representative for Kapako Constituency.