The Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) has assured youths in the country that it has provided seed money in order to mitigate the difficulty that youths face in accessing empowerment funds from the commission.
CEEC Chairperson Jacob Sikazwe reiterated that the commission has K150 billion which will be used to support broad based economic empowerment programmes for targeted citizens such as youths, women and the disabled.
Mr. Sikazwe urged youths to get close to successful business persons in the country in order to learn the best practices of managing an entrepreneurship.
He said this in Lusaka today at a youth sensitization workshop on the operations of CEEC and funding guidelines organized by the Youth Association of Zambia.
And YAZ Executive Director Evans Musonda said his organized stands ready to partner with the CEEC in the area of sensitization in order to ensure that all young people access the empowerment funds.
Mr. Musonda also disclosed that his organisation has since January this year spent over K1 billion in giving loans to young people in seven provinces.
He said YAZ which works in partnership with the Copperbelt Forum will by September this year cover all districts in all the nine provinces in a bid to supplement government efforts in youth empowerment.
The two-day workshop has drawn about 30 youths from all the nine provinces and is being held at the Commonwealth Youth Programme office at the University of Zambia great east road campus.
ZANIS/BK/AM/ENDS
This is excellent. We need youth empowerment for real. But am thinking the attendance is abit bad. 30 youths from 9 provinces. God bless you CEEC
The vision 2030 which aims at raising this beloved country zambia to a medium economy nation is a mountainous target needing the participation of everyone else wherever they may be to come on board.entrepreneurship skills by nature are life long and command a bigger percentage of players world over.its on this conclusion that we must be ashamed for not showing the much needed intensity towards this by only training such an above mentioned negligible number.how many are we targeting in a year/per province/district?who cant see/feel enjoy the value of entrepreneurship skills wherever you go?we need almost everyone to be given such skills at least if they want.pls speed up the process.its vital
Just realise guidelines on how citizens can access the funds so that we get and start tuntembas. Mutati alreadys shouted at you CEEC chaps for failing to timely realise funds to the intended target. And ensure that everybody that is eligible is able to access the funds and it should not be limited to the youths and women.
However, preference for the diabled in our society should be encouraged as they are the most disenfranchied group.
yaba, there we go again reading this scrap. 30 youths from nine provinces and what is the age groups probably the same 30 youths are the ones or members of the CEEC, thats the problem we have in zed advertise the youth empowerment nation wide and even to the grass roots reaching out to people who cant even read but have great business ideas, not every business needs a business plan.150 billion is good money for the youths ohh i forgot the will buy pajelos and do more shopping…..
Let’s not comment without proper analysis. I think the article is quite clear that the workshop was organised not by CEEC but by an organisation called Youth Association of Zambia which is supplementing Govt efforts in empowering youths. Their capacity could allow only 30 youths, which is a great effort I must add. They only invited CEEC to make a presentation. If they can retain the 30 youths countrywide and help them set up successful businesses, that would be great. It’s the govt that u must direct your anger at, not this noble YAZ. Just to correct u my friend @ #4, every business must have a business plan. Never venture into waters you cannot chart.
#2-5 learn to be short and get to the point quick. Too many words but too little sense. First things first: I think a good education is the foundation for a successful enterpreneurship.
#6 My comment was a response and clarification to the #1-4. If your mind cannot take in alot of stuff in one instance, I’ll try to be brief next time. Exactly what do you mean by good education because I know people with very humble educational background but exceptional entrepreneural skills.
a business without plan is one step into loses. hope the forum organised by YAZ will hild its purpose.to the youths, lets try by all means to use the resource within our reach to develop lets not dpend much on aid.its not every one who will have a share of the said amount. develop yourself youths……buleni inkasu(holes)
I think entrepreneurship should be part of national policy, not something that is done peacemeal for only youths, or women, or the disabled, but should accessible to everyone. Let’s use some of the money from the mines to invest in infrastructure, which will create lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs, by making new markets accessible and create jobs at the same time. Let’s create business and professional colleges in every province, so people can get entrepreneurial skills and have skilled employees and suppliers. And let’s start treating farmers as entrepreneurs, because there is so much opportunity in agriculture to make real money.
I agree with #9, because great infrastructure does encourage investment and stimulates entrepreneural projects.
I think #8 is wrong about his concept of a business plan as it’s intended to highlight the posible risks and benefits of a particular project. It also provides the basis of evaluation of someones project by the CEEC to be able to give you money.
5 and 6 if i can just clarify my point, what i meant by a businesses not needing a business plan i meant in a sense of i.e in most combons you’ll find people with big tuntembas operating as well as well as people who owns tuma shops around the place even venturing in other combons unlike the sense where having here of having a big business that can employ people as the govt might not have enough money to support for such but instead empower people so be in a position to be able to start business and feed there families….
Zambians should also learn to do business with one another. With quality and price the same, some people would rather buy foreign goods instead of supporting local industries. This is understandable where either Quality is not good or prices are higher than foreign produced goods. Let the ‘dollar’ circulate within our communities multiple times before leaving!
Question to you all:
If you had a venture capitalist who would risk ploughing $50.0M into your business idea in Zambia, what idea would sell him? $50 being the minimum.
Is businessmen the only thing Zambia needs? Not everyone can be a business man. How about qualified training of apprentices for different professions? Zambia needs also good road builders, plumbers, electricians, bakers, mechanics etc…..! There is a lack of systematic training in the vocational areas in this country.
Get close to successful business people in the country in order to learn the best practices of entrepreneurship!?
What kind of advice is this? How close do you want young people to get?????? Get serious!