…. approved loan funding for 325 young people in the past five years, amounting to over E17M
BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – in his end of term speech, Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini highlighted that the government of Eswatini has always prioritised the youth.
This he revealed when he talked about youth empowerment in his address to the media yesterday afternoon.
“The Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) approved loan funding for 325 young people in the past five years, amounting to over E17M and creating over 1 000 jobs,”
“Government also successfully launched the Eswatini Youth Empowerment Programme with UNDP and the Insika Yensha Youth Empowerment Programme with Taiwan, among other programmes.” he said.
In addition to that he said after years of public outcry over the non-compensation of artists for their hard work, the Copyright Society was finally put in place so that artists can start deriving royalties from their sales and airplay. This is a positive step towards the well-deserved compensation of artists.
Meanwhile, in a bid to achieve one of the goals of the Strategic Roadmap, which is to create an enabling environment in which emaSwati, investors and strategic partners can thrive, the Government made significant milestones in order to improve ease of doing business to attract investment. These include the 24hr operationalisation of the Ngwenya/Oshoek Border Post.
“Government also introduced an e-payment system for trading and liquor licences as well as business registrations and renewals. This was followed by the launch of an electronic queuing system to reduce the long queues that were a sore sight at the Registrar of Companies. Government finally established the Small Claims Court, which will expedite the resolution of relatively small claims in business,” he said.
