It is befitting to start this piece by acknowledging the E500 million that the government is ploughing into youth opportunities. Eswatini youth employment Opportunities (EYEOP) has multiple pathways to empowerment; however, due to word count limitations, I will focus on the entrepreneurship pathway. Purely because if we are to reap the demographic dividend, the window is fast closing on unlocking the entrepreneurial abilities of the youth. Hence, we must calibrate the programme for success on this iteration of the programme. EYEOP has rightly placed youth employment at the centre of national development. But unless it tackles the structural barriers that keep young entrepreneurs trapped in subsistence, the promise of youth entrepreneurship will remain a pipedream.
Formal jobs vs. fragile ventures
A striking reality is that many young people will readily accept even a lowpaying clerical job over running a microenterprise. This is not because they lack ambition, but because the businesses they can start with microfinance are too small, too fragile and too uncertain. Access to credit without access to scale is a trap. It keeps youth locked in ventures that generate little more than survival income, while the stability of a formal job, however modest, appears more attractive.
This preference underscores a deeper problem: Entrepreneurship is not yet seen as a competitive alternative to formal employment. For youth to choose business over clerical work, the returns must be higher, the risks manageable and the pathways to growth visible. Also, infused into the programme should be a modality to ensure that as one awaits the harvest, they have enough to fund operational costs, including their own wage.
Ownership without control
The challenge is not only financial. Youth may have access to productive resources such as communal land, but they rarely have control over them. Traditional arrangements of production, ownership and decisionmaking often leave young entrepreneurs as passive participants rather than active managers. Without control, innovation is stifled and businesses fail to grow. Agriculture illustrates this vividly. Land fragmentation leaves young farmers with plots too small to sustain profitable agribusiness. Nonmovable assets such as equipment remain locked in arrangements that prevent youth from exercising autonomy. The result is predictable: Businesses collapse under the weight of structural constraints. It is imperative that the programmes take these property rights considerations into cognisance to improve the chances of success.
Leasing government farms
If we are to make a marked impact through EYEOP, we need to make bold strides towards economies of scale. One such step could be leasing out fallow government farms to youth co-operatives or scalable agribusiness projects. This would provide the scale necessary for viable enterprises, while also ensuring that land is productively used. Such a model would allow youth to move beyond subsistence farming into commercial agriculture, creating jobs, generating exports and contributing to food security. It would also signal a shift from tokenistic access to resources towards genuine empowerment and control. Congruent financing must be made available through the EYEOP project or through existing government programmes.
Identifying true entrepreneurs
Another critical issue is the failure to distinguish between subsistence seekers and true entrepreneurs. Current programmes often support anyone unemployed, assuming that entrepreneurship is a universal solution. But entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It requires risktakers, innovators and builders, individuals willing to take calculated risks and pursue growth.
By treating every unemployed youth as an entrepreneur, programmes dilute their impact. What is needed is a screening mechanism that identifies those with ambition and risk appetite and then provides them with tailored support. Tiered financing and mentorship could reward ambition, while survivalist ventures could be supported through social protection rather than entrepreneurial programmes.
Financing and collection
mechanisms
Weak repayment and collection systems have undermined the sustainability of youth funds. Grantstyle disbursement often leads to dependency rather than discipline. Placing funds with banks and linking them to loan guarantee schemes could strengthen repayment, leverage existing financial infrastructure, and crowd in private capital. This shift from grants to blended finance, combining grants, guarantees and commercial lending, would create a more disciplined and scalable financing ecosystem. It would also build linkages with existing funds, ensuring that youth entrepreneurship is integrated into the broader financial system rather than isolated in microfinance.
Pathways to scale
Unlocking youth entrepreneurship requires deliberate pathways to scale. Aggregation models, such as co-operative farming or shared equipment schemes, can help youth pool resources and achieve economies of scale. Market linkages are equally critical: Youth enterprises must be connected to value chains in agribusiness, ICT, renewable energy and tourism.
Policy integration is also essential. Youth entrepreneurship should not be treated as a standalone programme, but as part of national industrial and agricultural strategies. This would ensure coherence, sustainability and alignment with broader economic goals.
Beyond survivalism
The current model has failed to distinguish between subsistence and ambition. It has failed to provide control over productive resources. And it has failed to create pathways to scale. EYEOP must become more than a microfinance programme; it must be a platform for transformation.
EYEOP must tackle structural barriers, scale youth ventures, improve financing and identify true entrepreneurs. Unlocking the demographic potential of the kingdom.
