By Abass Jalloh
The Minister of Youth Affairs, Mohamed Orman Bangura, has disclosed that the Sierra Leone government has approved the sum of Le5billion for the Youth Empowerment Fund, which is geared towards youths development.
Mr Bangura made this disclosure on Thursday, 26th November, at the government’s weekly press briefing hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communication.
The Youth Empowerment Fund, according to the minister, is a basket fund for 2021, from which young people in different areas will be able to access funds to undertake development and entrepreneurial projects.
Bangura said the government intended to set up a committee comprising the National Youth Commission and the National Youth Service, with the Ministry just being there to approve after consultation.
Minister Bangura added that the government, through the Ministry of Youth Affairs, in partnership with Ministry of Agriculture, has introduced the Chiefdom Youth Fund for young people in chiefdoms across the country. This initiative, according to him, is budgeted for a sum of Le418, 734, 200. He said that the funds were already in the respective districts, waiting for the Anti-Corruption Commission’s approval to partner with the Ministry of Youth to engage in joint implementation.
Bangura went on to note that the government is focusing on employing youths in agriculture because it reduces rural-urban migration, which mostly results into increase crime rate, adding that the government has provided over 200 tractors for the initiative, for its effective implementation.
“The Ministry considers every Sierra Leonean as an asset. What we intend to do is not to pay young people anymore on monthly basis, but we rather encourage them to have passion for agriculture itself,” he said.
He added that the ministry would be embarking on social mobilization in December to train young people for the Chiefdom Youth Fund, noting that 191 chiefdoms are to be involved in several groups for mentorship.
“Every chiefdom should have four groups of 25 [people] per chiefdom. That takes us to 20,000 young people that would be involved in agriculture,” he said.
He explained that one should be below the age of 35 to be part of the project and should also be in touch with the chiefdom heads and councils.
“The [Youth] Ministry, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, would be paying for the tractors to work for these groups of young people at chiefdom level. When it comes to seedlings and fertilizers, they would be giving them, and during the time of harvesting they would have a startup capital,” he said.
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