BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– FINCORP has joined the movement of empowering the youth.
In line with their founding mandate, which is to economically empower emaSwati through the provision of accessible financial services, Eswatini Development Finance Corporation (FINCORP) remains fully committed to unlocking the potential of the country’s youth in order to fully realize the unique demographic dividend.
Dumisani Msibi, FINCORP’S Group Managing Director, said the foundational basis of their long-term relationship with Junior Achievement spans over 12 years to date.
He said they have been working with Junior Achievement JA) to support the empowerment of youth with practical entrepreneurial skills, sound financial literacy, and innovation.
In addition, they are currently very active in the Junior Achievement Eswatini (JA) Angel Network Investor programme, aimed at coordinating equity support for young entrepreneurs.
“We are working hard to ensure that all youth is supported to take advantage of available opportunities and is integrated into the mainstream economy.
“We offer various tailor-made products to meet customer requirements in order to ensure that we provide access to finance and young people are included,” said Msibi.
One other avenue through which young people can access credit is the small-scale enterprise loan guarantee scheme housed at the Central Bank of Eswatini but accessed through financial institutions and FINCORP is one of them.
He said everyone ought to know that this guarantee scheme is powered by the Government of Eswatini in an effort to make funding for the youth easier.
“As of April 2022 at FINCORP we have commissioned a digital transformation strategy aimed at deepening our mandate of providing access credit; creating jobs and eradicating poverty which should be even more exciting for the tech-savvy youth of this country,” he said in addition.
Worth noting is that since its launch in November 1995, FINCORP has provided E6.5 billion to over 80 000 beneficiaries across the length and breadth of this country.
According to the latest data, they have businesses funded by FINCORP support over 15 000 jobs and contribute about E1.5 billion to the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In 2018, the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini launched the Informal Traders Guarantee Fund. To date, close to 1 000 businesses have benefited under this Fund which is administered by FINCORP on behalf of the Government.
As I am standing here before you a total of E1.5 Billion is in the hands of Emaswati who are developing themselves in various ways and was duly disbursed by FINCORP.
The biggest downside though is that we are powered by debt instead of equity just above E1.0 Billion which is proving to be quite heavy on the company. “ We will continue rolling up our sleeves to do our part in fulfilling our mandate as commissioned by His Majesty King Mswati III at the launch in November 1995, which is to empower Eswatini citizens through the provision of meaningful access to credit, job creation, and poverty alleviation,” said Msibi in conclusion.
