BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– The Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs has implemented and currently working on a youth empowerment programme worth E5.1 million.
This was revealed in their annual performance report for the financial year 2022/2023 and the budget estimate for the year 2023/2024.
The Ministry has commenced the implementation of yet another Youth Empowerment Programme funded by The Republic of China in Taiwan with a E5.1 million budget and it has three thematic areas which are mindset change education, business accelerator and the provision of TVET toolkits to graduates.
The Minister of the aforementioned Ministry, Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga, further highlighted other key achievements in their financial year. He mentioned that the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund approved loan funding for 50 businesses worth E2 479 439 during the current financial year.
These businesses are in agriculture, service industry, media, and hospitality. The Youth Enterprise Fund also enrolled 111 beneficiaries under its mentorship and coaching programme.
“The development of National Anti-Doping Regulations which shall be an addendum of the national sports Act was concluded and shared with the World Anti-Doping Agency for validation, the Ministry also continues to implement sport development and sport for development activities in the period under review.
“As such Shukuma Eswatini outreach activities were successfully delivered. In total seven major Shukuma Eswatini outreach activities were delivered during the period under review,” he said.
In addition to that, Bulunga revealed that his Ministry established a partnership with The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)for the implementation of a Youth Empowerment Programme which has received funding to the tune of E8 million for the first phase which was launched by His Majesty King Mswati III in November last year at Lozitha Palace. The programme is also in implementation.
“This programme has a number of thematic areas which are a graduate placement and mentorship program, an artisanal skills training and mentorship program and a sustainable energy academy among others,” said Bulunga.
Worth noting is that the budget allocation approved by the House for the 2022/23 Financial Year was made up of E744 552 608 for recurrent expenditure. A sum of E1 024 299 000 was for capital expenditure their recurrent budget expenditure reflects a slightly above allocation rate of three percent and this is a result of under allocation on some items, while on the capital budget, expenditure stands at 73 percent.
