Max Henrich

ONGWEDIVA - A number of organisations have come on board to assist in the realisation of a major youth agriculture project that will be established in Ondangwa.

The project is part of the town council’s effort to mitigate the high rate of youth unemployment. Ondangwa Town Council has, therefore, secured funds for the project to create jobs for the unemployed youth in Ondangwa Urban constituency. 

Ondangwa constituency councillor Leonard Negonga, stated that the new Ondangwa integrated farming youth project was funded by Social Security Commission with N$1.5 million. The opportunity came about last year when the council came across an advert from Social Security Commission (SSC), inviting youth projects to apply for funding.

Apart from SSC, other stakeholders such as the University of Namibia (Unam), ministry of fisheries, Namibia Industrial Development Agency (NIDA), Ondangwa Town Council and NamWater will provide the upcoming project with the necessary equipment and basic support needed for the project’s realisation. The stakeholders involved will provide the initiative with support for a rice project, fish farming, boreholes, six earth dams, and 33 hectares of land to get the project started.

The implementation of the Ondangwa youth integrated farming project has more than 100 youth that have shown interest. The project will only start off with employing five youth with the aim to increase the intake as the project grows. Negonga encourages the youth to apply for the upcoming vacancies at the projects.

The project is set to start this year with the youth voting for the chairperson. 

“I encourage the youth to be transparent throughout the course of implementation of the project and encourage them to voice their opinions regarding the projects,” said Negonga, at a recent youth meeting that was held in Ondangwa. 

The council will help lead the youth into having a successful project, but will later withdraw from the project after the first successful harvests.