Today New Era continues with its coverage of the Harambee Prosperity Plan, which is built on five pillars that consist of sub-pillars to form the frame or structure of a house. These pillars are Effective Governance; Economic Advancement; Social Progression; Infrastructure Development, and International Relations and Cooperation. Today we unpack pillar two of HPP: Economic Advancement: Youth Enterprise Development.
A situation analysis within the Harambee Prosperity Plan indicates that with 36.8 percent of the population between the age group 15-34 years, Namibia has a bulging young population. Regrettably of the broad 28.1 percent unemployment rate, 39.2 percent (2014) unemployed are youth. It is, therefore, Government’s strategic intent to develop and harness this human resource capacity to contribute towards employment creation and SME driven economic growth, propelled by the youth. This sub-pillar of Youth Enterprise Development has the dual objective, to create an enabling environment for private sector entrepreneurial start-ups and growth-oriented SMEs, as well as to facilitate the establishment of youth-owned enterprises, through Government structures.
Young Namibians are increasingly anxious about reaping the economic benefit, most tangibly in the form of employment in the formal economy. If these aspirations are not met, then there are obvious implications for social stability. The Harambee Plan intends to deliver prosperity to a youthful nation and therefore identifies youth, in particular young women, as key target beneficiaries for development and also key implementing partners and participants.
The desired outcomes with respect to Youth Enterprise Development during the Harambee period will be: To improve small business access to finance, from the current 22 percent to 50 percent by 2020; To introduce new financial instruments aimed at overcoming the hurdle of collateralised credit for start-ups with viable business plans; Establish an SME Development Agency with countrywide representation by 2020; and to establish 121 Youth-Owned Rural Enterprises each permanently employing minimum of 5-10 youth by 2020. The following strategies and actions will be deployed to ensure the attainment of Goal HPP05 during the Harambee period:
National Youth Entrepreneurship Policy: We will draft and adopt a National Youth Entrepreneurship Policy by end of 2016. This Policy will coordinate and align essential levers for the entrepreneurial ecosystem including: access to funding; access to markets and integration into local and global supply chains; incubation and mentorship, business development services and skills, training and development. This initiative will be spearheaded by the Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development [MITSMED], Ministry of Finance [MOF] and Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service [MSYNS];
➜ Youth Enterprise Development Fund: We will, in year one of Harambee, review existing Government-owned youth enterprise funding mechanisms, with intent to consolidate them into a single ring-fenced Enterprise Development Fund, exclusively for the youth. We will ensure that this Fund, once established, will be appropriately resourced to ensure maximum impact with respect to youth enterprise development. ➜ Non-collateralised lending for start-ups with potential: To overcome the challenge of collateralised lending that is a big obstacle for broader growth oriented SMEs, the Ministry of Finance as the custodian of the Financial Sector Strategy, will be tasked to expedite the SME Financing Strategy, which aims to establish a Venture Capital Fund, a Credit Guarantee Scheme and the Challenge Fund [latter is a Training and Mentoring Fund aimed to build capacity in the business development service market, as well as enhance accessibility and affordability of those services to SMEs]. MOF will make necessary submission to Cabinet for approval and implementation of both the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the above SME Financing Strategy, which emanates from the Financial Sector Strategy.
➜ Impact Evaluation Framework: To ensure maximum impact an evaluation framework for the implementation of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund will be developed and enforced. The framework will make provision for reporting requirements for implementing agencies and will have clear accountability measures for results.
➜ Support to SME Development: Pending current Cabinet review and approval of the MSME Policy, MITSMED as Policy custodian, will be tasked to institutionalise the SME Development Agency with countrywide representation. The agency will become operational in year two of the Harambee period and countrywide representation will be achieved by the end of the Harambee period. This agency will facilitate SME development through various business support and advisory services.
➜ Information Database System: MITSMED will develop and implement an Information Database System to record MSME and Youth-Owned MSME data during the Harambee period. This will provide pertinent and accurate statistical data informing of the level of participation, economic contribution through employment creation and sectoral representation of Namibian SMEs.
➜ Develop project proposals for Regional Businesses: To take entrepreneurship to a local level, the National Youth Council, National Youth Service and MITSMED will scope regional business projects and spearhead business plan drafting for 121 Constituency Enterprises. Source: Harambee Prosperity Plan
- Tomorrow we will continue unpacking the Harambee Prosperity Plan by taking a closer look at Economic Competitiveness within the Economic Advancement Pillar.