BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MATSAPHA – The Centre for Financial Inclusion (CFI) has urged the youth to be involved in the development of policies which dictate youth development.
This happened today during a workshop to discuss current policies which are designed to address youth development issues in the country. The workshop was hosted in Matsapha by the CFI together with the Swaziland National Agricultural Union (SNAU) and the Ministry of Agriculture Eswatini.
The workshop was a discussion between stakeholders on how the youth can best participate in the agriculture sector, given the challenges and opportunities inherent in the sector, as well as the trend outlooks going forward. The stakeholders also included key industry players like the National Maize Board (NAMBOARD), young farmers from around the country, as well as policy makers in youth development.
The CFI stated through the social media channels that it is without a doubt that part of the solution for promoting youth participation in agriculture should include supportive policies and frameworks that promote capacity building, stakeholder investment, and creating innovative spaces in agriculture in a way that takes into account youth aspirations. The CFI’s outlook is that such policies and frameworks should be inclusive and recognise at the onset young people as key players in policy formulation.
The CFI’s aspirations for youth development policy formulation was articulated by CFI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nomcebo Hadebe when speaking during the workshop.
“We want young people to see that there is more to farming than just tilling the soil, it can be exciting and innovative. The agriculture value chain provides limitless opportunities for youth to participate even in outside on-farm initiatives. To our young entrepreneur present today, you have enormous potential for innovation and risk-taking,” said the CEO.
“What we find is that we make policies for youth without including them and they don’t adopt and own them. So, in order to actually reach them as they are the future of the country as we grew up knowing, we have to engage them and talk to them so we know what to do in creating policies which they will actually adopt,” added the CEO when being interviewed by Eswatini TV at the workshop.
She added that they are putting more effort to make sure that the funds which youth access from different government programmes are actually used most appropriately in development initiatives by the youth.
The Centre for Financial Inclusion is a semi-autonomous body under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to facilitate access to financial services for micro-entrepreneurs and the un-banked population through creating an enabling environment for the sector. The CFI is responsible for the The Financial Inclusion and Cluster Development (FINCLUDE) Project, which is a collaboration following an agreement between the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini through the Ministry of Finance.
The FINCLUDE Project seeks to increase returns from sustainable farm and non-farm enterprise for rural people, including poor and youth, through efficient public-sector investment at the same time leveraging on the private sector participation.
