BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) and Small Enterprise Development Company (SEDCO) have collaborated to help young entrepreneurs to be able to sustain their businesses.
According to information sourced from YERF’s Facebook page, the two parastatals have entered into what is known as a service level agreement. In this service level agreement, SEDCO will be providing mentorship services to YERF beneficiaries. This means the youth of Eswatini who have acquired loans to start businesses from YERF will, upon starting their businesses, be mentored by SEDCO so that their businesses could grow.
According to its website, SEDCO is a public enterprise that is wholly owned by the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini. SEDCO exists as a legal persona that was established in 1970 under the Companies Act No.7 of 1912 as a limited company and is a category “A” public enterprise under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
SEDCO is an organisation established to create, develop and promote Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The company exists primarily to stimulate home grown entrepreneurship with a sustainable economic growth through entrepreneurship development and growth.
To date MSME development features prominently in the country’s strategy for economic development as articulated by the National Development Strategy (NDS), the Strategic Road Map for Economic Recovery and the MSME Policy 2018. This company is under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
On the other hand, YERF, according to its website, is a Category A Parastatal that was established by the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini in 2009 in response to the vision of His Majesty King Mswati III. The company was established through legal notice No.179 of 2009. It is further regulated under the Public Enterprises (Control & Monitoring) Act of 1989.
The Parastatal is under the Ministry of Sports Culture and Youth Affairs. The main purpose of the Fund is to promote youth employment and alleviate poverty among young people between the ages of 18 to 35 years old.
