The Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) has invested over N$3.5 million in the MTC 4Life programme over the past two years.
This follows MTC’s decision to allocate an additional N$1.5 million to support more than 40 young Namibians from the Zambezi, Erongo, Hardap, and Omaheke regions.
The MTC 4Life initiative aims to tackle youth unemployment by equipping self-employed or unemployed youth with essential skills and business training.
According to MTC’s Corporate Communications Specialist, Erasmus Nekundi, the programme is designed to uplift young entrepreneurs who have the ambition but lack the means to start their businesses.
“The MTC 4Life programme offers hope to the young man or woman who is sitting at home with a dream of becoming an entrepreneur but does not know how or where to start and lacks the capital to do so. This year, we are igniting dreams in eight trades: animation, carpentry, hairstyling, electrical and solar installation, upholstery and welding, barbering, and brick manufacturing. We received a total of 256 valid applications from the participating regions. We take on four regions at a time to ensure the programme’s implementation remains efficient and effective. Next year, we will focus on other regions that we have yet to cover,” Nekundi said.
More than 250 unemployed Namibian youth from the four selected regions have applied for specialised business training and seed capital through the MTC 4Life project.
“As is customary, we continue to partner with reputable SMEs to train and equip participants with entry-level theoretical and practical competencies. The training duration ranges from five to 15 days, and as usual, each candidate will receive a toolkit and N$5,000 in capital to help them start or expand their businesses,” he said.
The project is known for its deliberate focus on imparting essential business and practical skills to unemployed youth, enabling them to establish or grow their small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
