The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) has made available N$8 million to the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service to finance the start-up of 28 rural youth enterprises.
DBN’s initial involvement consisted of Business Management training for 407 young people from the 121 rural youth enterprises, an exercise that involved technical support to the tune of N$1.2 million.
The exercise according to bank, involved helping the youth identify potential business ideas and opportunities in their constituencies and developing business plans for such.
“Firstly, the Bank has as one of its goals, being the provision of finance for young entrepreneurs. The programme is expected to be a seed for the future of Namibia’s economy. Youth enterprise will be the pool from which it draws its future prosperity and employment creation. The initiative complements existing Bank programmes that provide skills-based finance to young professionals, young artisans and finance for other young entrepreneurs through its SME Finance and Investments departments,” DBN’s Head of SME Finance, Robert Eiman said.
Speaking on the significance of the initiative at the official hand-over ceremony, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the 28 enterprises are part of a wider initiative to provide funding to 121 rural youth enterprises.
“Funding for youth enterprises is an important component of Namibia’s goal to achieve sustainable development, under the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5),” she said, adding that the projects aim to create 1,210 new, sustainable, permanent jobs.
DBN’s Jerome Mutumba urged young entrepreneurs to approach the Bank with sustainable business plans to apply for finance as SMEs or to apply for skills-based finance for young artisans or young professionals.
