Youths in the Matabeleland regions have expressed outrage at what they call “careless” utterances by a Zimbabwe Youth Council official that youths in the three regions of Matabeleland are failing to submit bankable business plans or simply shunning the Youth Fund scheme. These sentiments made by Miss Yolanda Washaya and published in the Chronicle of 03 September 2012 have been viewed as nothing less than careless, unfounded stereotypic views that have been used repeatedly by state officials in the media to trivialise the concerns of the region and keep its citizens from benefitting fully from national programs.
Firstly the official claims that youths in Matabeleland have failed to produce bankable business proposals. The question is what is a bankable business proposal? The idea that what sells and makes good business sense in the capital Harare where the decisions are made will sell in Binga, Beitbridge and even Nkayi shows just how out of touch the official is with reality. Both the ZYC and the ministry have failed to hold consultative meetings with young people to gather views on what businesses are viable and would need funding in their regions. It also failed to orient young people into the requirements and needs of how to apply for the fund or write a business proposal and expects to be taken seriously as a voice of young people? Obviously, many young people, a large number with just O`levels and others with non business related degrees will need assistance one way or the other with how to write and apply a business project proposal.
Secondly the official, without an evaluation of why youths in the three regions of Matabeleland are producing so called “unbankable” proposals, chooses to ignore the fact that successful business is not only in agro-based projects. If she had taken the time to come down to Matabeleland or at the very least call those organisations that interact with youths on a day to day basis like the NYDT, then she would have learnt that some young people in Matabeleland do not find Agro based projects appealing because of the severe drought patterns in the region. She would have found that some youths are more interested in sports, arts, tourism, hospitality, motor mechanics based businesses amongst others. She would have learnt that what some banks think sells is a limiting factor to many young people in Matabeleland who have little or no access at all to the very centralised banking halls in the capital.
Thirdly, the official also naively assumes that all young people in the remotest parts of Zimbabwe, more so in Matabeleland have access to the state papers in which fund application adverts are flighted. The Ministry has ignored that young people cannot afford newspapers and even if they did some national papers do not reach all areas where young people are found. In addition to the fact that Zimbabwe is already facing a challenge of centralisation, the poor flow of information from the centre to peripheral areas is limiting youths access to national resources. A ministry in charge of the largest group of the population must know better and use more far reaching methods to advertise its programmes through radio interviews, street promotions, road shows, TV and radio marketing campaigns, fliers, word of mouth through its community liaison officers, Tshirts and even a launch in every province or district to ensure that everyone knows and receives information about it. In other words, rather than using conventional media, the Ministry is encouraged to shun its partisan nature and partner with CSOs, using local structures of information sharing to reach out to marginalised youths that it is so far out of touch with.
Forth, it is short sighted for a ministry for young people, knowing their political and economic challenges and limitations, their struggles and restrictions, to expect the same young people seeking funds to start businesses to have money to open bank accounts, to already be running a registered company with a tax clearance and to have quotations and a precise business plan upon first application. The practical question that everyone needs to imagine in their mind is how does a young woman in Binga get access to money to travel to Bulawayo or Harare to register a company and have it tax cleared? How is she expected upon first application to have run around for the best quotations and to know how to write a winning business plan that a bank will find appealing and bankable?
Finally, the NYDT would like to reiterate the recommendations it has gathered in consultation with young people in the said 3 regions of Matabeleland, on the distribution of this fund. The NYDT believes the following steps will ensure an almost smooth and transparent distribution of the fund in a way that will be satisfactory to most if not all stakeholders;
The Ministry must release the names of the individuals who have benefitted from the fund so far. The release of the names must show the provinces that have benefited thus far as well as those that applied but failed to be considered as proof of lack of interest or failure to impress on the part of some regions. This will allow members of the public to monitor the distribution strategy of the fund and guard against the marginalisation of some provinces in the distribution of the fund as well as ensure that indeed each province gets $1 million as planned.
We implore the Ministry to use broader avenues of advertising and information sharing other than the conventional newspapers. Conventional advertising methods exclude other young people, especially those in rural areas, who do not have access to such forms of media and even those in the urban areas who cannot afford to buy the newspaper daily. Instead of using conventional media the Ministry should partner with CSOs, using local structures of information sharing, radio and deploying its youth officers to remote areas, among other strategies. It is the mandate of the ministry of youth, development, indigenisation and empowerment to promote public awareness on development and empowerment opportunities available to youths through all means possible.
We strongly recommend that the Ministry publish a call for applications at least six months before the deadline for applications so as to give young people adequate time to research and prepare their business proposals as well as put all the necessary documents together in time.
In distributing the funds, the ministry should consider revising its administration methods of distributing the funds as well as the requirements for getting an application form at the partnering banks. The current requirements are limiting if not totally discouraging particularly to the disadvantaged youths who should be the priority beneficiaries of the fund. This has affected mostly youths from remote areas, young women and youths from very poor backgrounds. If the ministry is to stick to the current requirements, there is a high possibility that the fund will only benefit young people in urban areas much to the disadvantage of rural based youths and young women.
NYDT believes that if the Ministry of youth empowerment and indigenisation is really serious about empowering young people in Zimbabwe, it will stop blaming and pointing fingers at the victims and start taking responsibility for its failures and taking more than 3years to distribute a $10million dollar fund to financially desperate young people.
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