KIGALI - Youth from the East African Community (EAC) have been advised to be self-reliant, innovative and avoid over depending on government.

The call was made, yesterday, by Protais Mitali, the Minister of Youth while opening a two-day regional workshop in Kigali.

The workshop, that brings together regional legislators and representatives from regional ministries of youth, aim at formulating strategies to curb unemployment among the youth.

"The youth should be focused and innovative…they need to prepare themselves while still in school and should get rid of the attitude that the government will employ them once they finish school,” Mitali told the participants.

The Minister observed that it would be prudent for regional countries to initiate mechanisms of financially supporting the youth in starting up income generating projects.
Meanwhile, lack of financial means and poor access to information are some of the challenges facing the youth.

In an interview, Mitali noted that the government has embarked on training the youth on how to become self employed, with emphasis on technology.

"It is a shame to find someone, with a Master’s degree in economics, on the streets looking for a job, and this person cannot write a business or project proposal; we are therefore training them to solve such problems,” he lamented.

Aline Uwineza, a civil engineering student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) pointed out that lack of guidance while selecting university programmes contributes to unemployment among the youth.

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