Luanshya Mayor Nathan Chanda says his council will hold an indaba ( public meeting ) with stakeholders aimed at exploring youth entrepreneurship skills.
ZANIS reports Mr. Chanda said this in a Press statement made available to ZANIS in Ndola this morning.
He said the council wants to ensure that youths in Luanshya are equipped with skills that will better their lives.
The council is targeting over 2, 000. youths for the indaba, of which 1,500 will be individual youths drawn from Luanshya urban and peri-urban areas while the rest will be drawn from youth led organizations in the country.
Mr. Chanda added that from the indaba the council hoped to come up with a road map on how to empower youths and how to incorporate them into the developmental agenda of Luanshya district as emphasized in the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP).
The Luanshya Mayor observed that empowering youths in different skills was a faster way of job creation as opposed to youths waiting for government to employ them.
He added that the indaba, which will be held in December , will attract officials from the Ministries of Youth, Commerce, Livestock and Agriculture.
Others to be invited will be from the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA), Trade Institutes, Entrepreneurs and various motivational speakers.
The best approach could have been by asking the youth to submit project proposals first? These should have then been evaluated before presenting them for example to ZDA; including other funding agencies. Just talking and listening to written speeches will not help the youth.
Here we have a Mayor who is a youth without any tertiary education or skill calling organizing an indaba for youth to discuss skills and entrepreneurship. We have cheapened the office of the Mayor