Ongwediva
The National Development Plan (NDP5) would prioritize youth employment strategies in order to mitigate the high unemployment rate in the country, said public relations officer at the National Planning Commission (NPC) Fillemon Nangonya at the Ongwediva Annual Trade fair.
He said that it was suggested that NDP5 should strive towards ensuring that in each household at least one person is working through labour-based working programs.
Nangonya said that the NPC visited all the regions in the country in preparation for the implementation of NDP5 and in order to meet the challenges faced in the regions by Vision 2030, and youth employment is one of the pressing issues in the society.
“It’s time the government takes the youth into consideration in order to avoid high unemployment in the regions and entire country, as several participants argued that youth unemployment is a result of lack of necessary skills and knowledge required for the job market,” he said, relating to the matters that were raised by participants at the national consultative meetings.
Upgrading and construction of multi- purpose youth resource centers in populated areas shall empower youth with necessary skills and knowledge needed for employment, he added.
In the meantime, the provision of recreational facilities in all local authorities through government subsidy will allow youth to abstain from criminal activities, he said.
Furthermore, immediate learner specialization would assist the development of enhanced skills in critical areas such as physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.
However, as a result of unemployment and a lack of youth empowerment high numbers of youth are becoming taxi drivers in some regions, which also have increased road accidents in their scrambling for money to sustain a living.
Thus, it is hoped that through the support of NPC, which is in preparation for NDP5, these challenges will be met in terms of economic development.
The government wants to ensure all these challenges are met and “no one is left out” in the development process especially in employment and empowerment of the youth and this has to be done in preparation for Vision 2030.
According to Nangonya, the attendees further noted that enhancing the provision of rural electricity with special focus on rural electrification of schools and growth points will create business opportunities in rural areas, and this will reduce the influx of youth to urban areas to look for opportunities in order to improve their living standard.
“Sport was raised as one of the problem areas – regions need sports facilities as there are many talents in their regions, it’s just unfortunate that people have no place to train to improve their skills in sport,” he quoted some of the suggested ideas that the nation wants to be included in NDP5.
It will apparently help and motivate youth to stay away from drug abuse and sexual activities, which results in pregnancy, HIV/AIDS in the regions.
These implementations will feature in lowering the rate of alcohol abuse and gender-based violence, as the youth and other people will see each other as friends within the societies.
Nangonya said that therefore participants had urged that the focus of the government should be on entrepreneurship development and support services, and government should encourage business people to become job creators to reduce or minimize unemployment in the regions.
Participants further highlighted that banks should reduce their charges to allow youth to borrow money so that they involve themselves in projects or start businesses such as agriculture projects in order to sustain a living and be able to pay for tertiary educattion.