Youth Urged To Change Their Mindset On Entrepreneurship
Youth Development Fund (YDF) boot camp was conducted in the Boteti region this week to assist the youth in meeting the required application standards, encourage them to venture into businesses and also identify the best suitable businesses they can pursue.
Speaking at the Boot camp, one of the facilitators Mr. Kagiso Habangana said, the reason most business proposals fail is because youth do not possess the right mindset for entrepreneurship, and they therefore fail to fill in the forms appropriately. Mr. Habangana urged the youth to choose businesses they are passionate about and to change their mindset for them to succeed in entrepreneurship.
Mr. Albert Kanane, the Program Officer in the Ministry of Youth, Gender Sports and Culture highlighted that businesses like Manufacturing, Agriculture (and its value chain), Agro-Tourism, Technology and Innovation are given priority when it comes to funding. He added that existing self-financed youth businesses with evidence of well-kept financial records and attractive prospects for expansion and job creation are also closely looked at and given priority. Furthermore, he encouraged the youth to fill the forms as per the requirements and also asked them to comply with the programme guidelines.
The Senior Administration Officer for the constituency, Mr. Gabantshwanele Kelathegile urged the youth never to give up and also lamented that there are other many government programmes they can explore and benefit from. He encouraged them to have dreams and ambitions and to always be creative in problem solving as that is how good business ideas are generated. He said a business person is a very creative person as everything starts with a dream.
The boot camps came as a result of the request made by youth in the region last year showing a keen interest in having facilitators to assist them with YDF forms for them to make good submissions. One of the youth who attended the boot camp, Revolution Letswai said he found it so helpful and asked if the boot camps would be done annually.
