Government has started the process of identifying beneficiaries of loans which will be disbursed under the youth street vendors empowerment funds in Western Province’s Kaoma district.
The programme, which was initially launched in Lusaka, Copperbelt and Central provinces last year, is being collaborated by the government, the United Street Vendors Foundation (USVF) and the Zambia Postal Services Limited (Zampost).
United Street Vendors Foundation (USVF) Kaoma district committee secretary Alick Kalimbwe told ZANIS in an interview that 55 youths from the district will benefit from the initiative after the committee scrutinizes loan requests they have received.
Mr Kalimbwe said that the youth street vendors’ empowerment funds will be given to young people with entrepreneurial skills so that they can venture in income generating activities that will eventually help them to become self-sustained.
He said that the USVF district committee has received overwhelming response with over 350 youths expressing their interest in accessing the soft loans and the process of identifying eligible beneficiaries has started.
Mr Kalimbwe said that the youth street vendors’ empowerment fund is a government-financed programme that is non-partisan which was created out of the realisation that most youths in the country are in the informal sector selling on the streets.
He said that the Kaoma USVF district committee has adopted a strict scrutiny process to ensure that only eligible beneficiaries obtain the loans that will help boost their businesses and only those who are currently running small business will get the credits.
However, PF Kaoma district vice youth publicity secretary Maliande Lipoba has expressed dissatisfaction with the selection criteria the Kaoma USVF district committee is using in selecting beneficiaries of the youth street vendors’ empowerment funds.
Mr Lipoba accused the Kaoma USVF district committee of partiality in the selection process alleging that bona fide beneficiaries are being left out at the expense of friends and relatives an assertion Mr Kalimbwe, who is also Kaoma PF youth chairman, denied.
The Kaoma USVF district committee members include Kingford Nasilele (coordinator), Alick Kalimbwe Secretary (secretary), Edinah Kalimbwe (treasurer), Monica Pelekelo (gender coordinator), with Mishengo Mishengo and Kabayo Simanga as security coordinator and programmes coordinator respectively.
In short you are bribing youths to vote for you in 2021 ka ?
Instead of encouraging SME’s you are giving the john solye ubwali’s.
And then all party leaders will loot the money truly visionless!
its too early and premature to talk about bribing for elections which are 4 yrs away. this kind of thinking is counter productive for a normal human being
What young people need is knowledge and skills not money. Give a man a fish, you feed him for one day, teach a money to fish you have fed him for the rest of his life. These repeated mistakes are a deliberate way way of plundering public resources by public servants and a sure way of keeping Africa ignorant so as to remain a natural resource pool for the ‘smart’ people for as long as possible. Its up to all of us to make make responsible decisions and be be accountable for our actions.
How many people have paid back these loans …please stop wasting taxpayers money you morons. ..this is just disgusting corruption – District commissioner is a ruling party cadre who do you think he is going to identify – does a Street Vendor pay tax or membership to a body.
Stop this nonsense!!
Here we go again! These programs just another way of stealing money! These guys need to be trained and empowered with skills…
our hard earned taxes are surely going to waste with this clueless,communistic approach to development, we cant have robin hood in this day and age !!
So you give one guy who sells mangoes a loan to buy and sell more. Why don’t you train them how to grow Mangoes? PF are just useless. They are not taking this country anywhere especially our unemployed youths.