She made this announcement during her policy and budget speech at the provincial legislature on Friday.

“Youth unemployment is a daunting economic challenge facing the province, with over 61% of its population aged between 18 and 35 falling under the expanded definition of unemployment. To respond to the challenges faced by young people across the province, we established the Mpumalanga Youth Development Fund (MYDF) which aims to provide a wide range of financial and non-financial support services to Mpumalanga youth-owned businesses,” she said.

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“Furthermore, the Office of the Premier has developed a comprehensive MYDF strategy, which serves as a blueprint to uproot the scourge of joblessness among the youth across the length and breadth of the province. The fund will, among other things, prioritise young women, persons with disabilities and above all reach out to youth residing in rural areas. The MYDF will increase youth participation in the economy while the funded and youth-owned enterprises will work towards the reduction of youth unemployment in the province.

“Young people without the requisite skills to develop bankable business plans, but who are keen to establish businesses, have been identified and through targeted mentoring, coaching and training programmes, will be capacitated,” she continued. “An amount of R90 million (which includes the allocation for the previous financial year) has been allocated this financial year for supporting youth entrepreneurs.

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“The project will be rolled out in a two-phased approach; the pilot phase is for a period of three years with 100% grant, and the full-scale phase, which will be in the form of a grant or loan. The disbursement of the fund will be done through Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (Mega) after the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Office of the Premier and Mega, which is projected to commence before the end of July.”

The premier said government has currently received 700 applications from the youth of Mpumalanga.

“The Office of the Premier has established the different work streams comprising relevant skills to enhance our capacity to speedily and efficiently roll out the project. To ensure good governance, accountability and integrity of the process, an oversight governance structure has been put in place by the executive council. This structure comprises three members of the executive council,” said Mtshweni-Tsipane.

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She said the Provincial Youth Development Coordinating Forum, which is a multisectoral platform made up of the private sector, the public sector and civil society stakeholders, dealing with the overall youth development agenda in the province, will be convened quarterly in order to monitor progress on youth development in the province.