TURNAROUND FOR YOUTH KEY

One of the main instigators of instability in the country is high unemployment, particularly among the youth. This is synonymous in many countries across the globe and it featured prominently fuelling the Arab Spring. An idle mind is the devils playground as they say and focusing national development programmes and job creation initiatives towards addressing this challenge has often lacked the pace to keep up with the demand. All the more reason it should headline some of the initiatives we expect to hear from our Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg today, which would be in response to the policy directives from the reconciliatory state of nation address by His Majesty the King last Friday, who urged the nation to turn our challenges into opportunities.

Whatever the minister and his team have been cooking over the last few months, one does hope the youth emerge as the biggest beneficiaries. Several youth focused programmes were pronounced by the king, together with projects that could make a huge impact on youth unemployment if well executed. We welcome the investment in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to make it attractive to the youth and to support industrialisation through the support of Taiwan. The European Union (EU) has also lined up E32 million towards youth development, while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has collaborated with government in a first-of-its-kind Youth Empowerment Programme that was launched by His Majesty Mswati III.  

Its five key components targeting the 3 934 graduates emerging from all tertiary institutions in the country annually; capacitating the non-graduate or out-of-school-youth with basic vocational skills and business development; drawing youth to play a part in the development of the renewable and sustainable energy sector; equipping the youth with skills in digital technologies and solutions and addressing the limited access to finance and low levels of financial inclusion, could all be game changers if carried out successfully.

The king also indicated a plan by government to empower qualified unemployed youth by granting them opportunities to install the ready-boards within their communities which would benefit under-privileged emaSwati without capacity to wire their houses for parts of the country that are inaccessible by the grid. This is a positive move but it has to ensure quality of service is not compromised.  We also wish to see the youth benefit from the opportunities identified in the mining sector, which is set to undergo legislative review following the directive from the head of state. With new mining operators having taken up the iron ore and coal spaces, we don’t expect iron smelters or thermal power stations anytime soon, but we do expect more players taking up the opportunities that the new mineral deposits discovered in the Hhohho and Manzini regions have to offer. Lubombo and Shiselweni are next and in whatever is found, these minerals must benefit the youth of these areas. Only a pro-people mining legislation can provide this.

These mines should complement the country’s plans to diversify the economy given the caution over SACU receipts that remain the main source of revenue for Eswatini yet most volatile. The SACU revenue formula is in the process of being reviewed which will lead to a lower share in the not so distant future.   It is also high time we see some tangible results for our youth coming out of the huge investment made at the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) which offers the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) aimed at attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Calls have been made from the Throne to have the legislative issues hindering this objective addressed sooner rather than later, essentially because hundreds of youth are being deprived of job opportunities. The Finance minister needs to set some time frames for this process because time is money for investors who will not hesitate to look elsewhere. With the RSTP said to be incubating about 52 start-ups over the past few years which have employed a total of 164 emaSwati and generated a total income of E9.5 million during the 2022/2023 financial year, much more is expected. It needs to work closely with its parent ministry in pushing for the reduction of costs for data and voice communication to make it more affordable for the youth to engage in business.  We are aware that the taxpayer has begun providing free Wi-Fi at tinkhundla centers by giving citizens access to 500MB of free data per day.

However, is this access being utilised effectively to foster job creation initiatives for our youth or just to browse social media sites? This essential access to the digital economy should be channelled to research and innovation around income generation projects, such as agri-business and climate change solutions.  Perhaps the Financial Inclusion Cluster Development (FINCLUDE) under the Ministry of Finance can play an effective role here since it also has a programme aimed at transforming smallholder agriculture into successful rural agribusinesses that are profitable. Critical to all the above initiatives is the appropriate infrastructure and it is imperative that significant budget allocations are made for the road network countrywide. Businesses need good roads to access markets and enable the productivity of the economy. A Roads Authority is to be established for this purpose but we hope it is not just another tax fleecing parastatal whose only claim to fame will be the new name for the defunct roads department.
  

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