By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – The influx of application for the funding project for youth farmers has made the National Maize Corporation (NMC) and the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) to extend the deadline to February 28, 2024.
This project is known as the NMC-YERF funding project for youth farmers. The youth farmers had been invited to apply for funding so that they could embark on their farming projects. For now, youth farmers spcialising in maize and beans have been invited to apply by the two public enterprises.
This means that the farmers interested in this initiative still stand a chance of applying. According to YERF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mandla Nkambule, many farmers have shown interest in being part of the programme and have since filed their application forms to YERF.
Nkambule said because of that, they felt it was necessary for them to extend the application. Initially, there were 11 farmers who had applied under this initiative. Lubombo Region has the most applicants, as eight of them are from that region. The other regions have one applicant each.
At the time of writing this report, a total of 20 farmers had shown interest in being included in this programme. Shiselweni and Hhohho Regions have eight of the applicants each, while Lubombo Region has six. There was no interested applicant from Manzini at the time of writing this report. The application forms of the 20 farmers are still in the process of being finalised by YERF.
All loans under this programme shall be towards assisting youth farmers with working capital. This shall include all or part of the production costs, as guided by gross margins. To be eligible for this programme, the applicants should be Emaswati between the ages of 18 and 35.
The applicants are also required to have a good credit history and also be contracted with the NMC. The applicants are also required to have at least one hector or more for beans. They are also required to have three hectors or more, if they decide to do maize farming. Loan application can be obtained from YERF offices, all constituencies, YERF website, NMC website, depot and Rural Development Areas (RDAs).
