The Ministry of Youth (MINIYOUTH) is mooting an idea of initiating more income generating activities for the youths in the country to improve their standards of living. According to Jean Serge Polisi, an official from the ministry, they are looking at ways of putting up Youth Friendly Centres (YFC) in various places which will help youth access information on how to develop themselves. “We are planning to have a plethora of activities to help the youth…this is especially because you find many of them have some skills but they just need to be trained on putting in practice what they learnt in theory,” said Polisi, in an interview with The New Times. He said that so far, there are 17 YFC out of 30 districts and the ministry targets to have at least a centre in every district through which it will establish employment funds to be combined with other venture capital funds. Polisi revealed that they are mainly focusing on what can develop young people adding that most of the youths, especially those in the countryside lack skills. Polisi urged the youth to form co-operatives which will help them exchange ideas with people of different skills. He also called upon them join the Youth Saving and Credit Bank (COOJAD), which will extend to them loan facilities to implement their different projects. The aim of the ministry, according to Polisi, is to ensure that all young people, regardless of their education background, have something in place to increase their per capita income. Ends
