Govt commits to addressing youth challenges

Govt commits to addressing youth challenges

Chipata, March 12, 2015, ZANIS… Youths in the Eastern Province have joined the rest of the country in the commemoration Youth day which falls today.

Officiating the event, Minister of Home Affairs Davies Mwila stated that government is committed to addressing the challenges that youths are facing including education and health.

Mr. Mwila stated that government has lined up a number of projects with a view to promoting the development of youths throughout the country in order to fulfil its pledge to address their many challenges.

 He stated that it was a fact that youths were the main drivers of the country’s agenda since they make up a huge population of the labour market.

“Even as the nation commemorates this year’s youth day under the theme ‘the youths building a stable and sustainable future: the approach to promote youth development’; youth development should be tailored towards ways that would make the development of youths more sustainable”, he said.

He stated that government will continue to create systems that will address the high unemployment levels among the youiths.

Mr. Mwila encouraged youths in the Eastern province to access youth empowerment funds adding that the funds are not politically driven but meant for the benefit of Zambian youths irrespective of their party affiliations to realize building of a sustainable future.

The minister however expressed concern that the enhancement of access to education among youths in the country has been a major concern of the government.

“In this regard, government has embarked on enhancing the sector through upgrading of schools in all provinces of the country to ensure equal education in the country”, he said.

He further said that to improve on rates of enrolment in tertiary education, government has a vision to establish one public university-college in all the 10 provinces.

Mr Mwila noted that to realise the dream, a university-college in Katete is earmarked for construction and that works are set to begin this year.

Speaking earlier, a youth representative George Mwanza called on the government ensure a better management of resources as it was key in providing a stable and sustainable future for the country.

Mr.Mwanza said government should ensure that resources such as minerals are   protected from exploitation by investors.

He also appealed to the government to defuse youths into its agenda by appointing more youths into key decision making positions.

He said youth participation has a great impact on the development of any nation and if given an enabling platform could bring out their best contribution towards the country’s development.

Mr.  Mwanza also stated the need for government and financial institutions to relax financial aid to enable youths have access to loans.