Byline:Nonjabuliso Nhlambo
28 June 2023
Mpumalanga Premier, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni – Tsipane, hosted a breakfast session with the Youth Development fund beneficiaries from all over Mpumalanga Regions on Tuesday, 27 June 2023 at Graceland country club.
The Primiers youth fund was established in 2021 to help youth owned businesses and also to curb the high employment rate in the province.
Over 97 beneficiaries have been funded with over R140 million from the premier’s youth development fund.
The breakfast session with the premier sought to create a network between the beneficiaries, to share best practices and explore market opportunities for youth entities.
Different stakeholders were invited to the event, including the mining industry, the National Youth Development Agency, the banking sector and many others.
Mr Alfred Nkosi, the Regional Manager of a certain bank, said the bank has made commitments of half a billion of financial support to the SMMEs.
“Next week, we will be sitting with the HOD of economic development to find ways on how to make this commitment a reality for the business people of this province.
Our strategy is focusing on education and most importantly we are focusing heavily on SMMEs development.
I think we can all agree that SMMEs are a catalyst to job creation as corporates are not appointed,” said Afred Nkosi, who is the Regional Manager at Absa.
Lungile Mkhize from Siyabuswa who runs a poultry company is one of the beneficiaries who were funded.
Lungile said she had a dream of starting a big commercial farm as a student but was advised to start at a small capacity, which helped her overcome a lot of challenges.
She further stated that the premier’s youth fund has helped her to grow from a small capacity to now a commercial farm.
