ILO and Tanzanian National Economic Empowerment Council award young entrepreneurs

Dar es Salaam (ILO News): ILO and the National Economic Empowerment Council for Tanzania, with support from the Swedish Embassy in Tanzania, on 13 June 2016 organized a national youth symposium to announce winners of Ajira Yangu (My Job) Business Plan Competition which was launched in April this year. The competition was meant to support young entrepreneurs to develop sustainable business ideas with a potential for employment creation.

“… Let me applaud all 831 youth competitors who participated in the “Ajira yangu” (my job) business development competition … I urge you to continue with this spirit, as such emerging opportunities are geared towards enabling you economically thereby contribute to the government’s poverty reduction efforts”. Stated the Executive Secretary, National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC), Ms. Beng’i Issa while officiating at the event attended by about 400 youth. The symposium was preceded by exhibitions on the business ideas whereby participants had an opportunity to cast their votes to their favourite, innovative and creative idea.

Twenty top winners of the competition were awarded USD 75,000 in total, as a start up cum business expansion capital for their proposed businesses and will receive technical support and mentorship for a period of one year. Among the winning proposed business ideas include – agribusiness, fish farming, animal husbandry, sports and ICT.

Ms. Issa informed that, reform of the education system in the country, through the expansion of primary and secondary education has sparked growing steadily the number of young people who are unemployed. According to the Population and housing census of 2012, more than 20 mil. (about 50%) are youth; the government has therefore, as a priority, put up strategies to tackle the youth employment challenge. She called upon various stakeholders in development, including the private sector, to emulate the example set by the above institutions, especially initiation of programmes which stimulate self-employment for the youth and further urged financial institutions to provide credit facilities to the youth through soft loans thereby promote the entrepreneurship culture among them.

The top ten winners were strongly advised to use carefully the seed capital provided to develop and expand relevant businesses and ensure that they grow and become part of the job creators in the country.

On her part the Director for ILO Country Office for Eastern Africa in Dar es Salaam, Ms. Mary Kawar, encouraged the youth to become committed entrepreneurs in executing their businesses and added that,

“…Tanzania has one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world; with its new five years development plan that puts economic transformation and human development at the centre, it will transit to a middle income country within a few years…” She therefore advised the youth to realize that their ambition to become entrepreneurs is part of this success.

One of the awardees Mr.Gilbert Tarimo, applicant from Morogoro, Tanzania, enthusiastically stated,

“I’m delighted to be one of the winners in this competition, I chose the rabbits farming project because demand for rabbit meat is very high worldwide, and for Tanzania this is a highly paying investment as it’s easy to run…I intend to sensitize the public not only on the consumption part but also join in promoting the initiative…”

Background Information

Ajira Yangu Business Plan Competition was designed for young people to gain business development skills so they can start or improve their businesses and mostly, create employment for themselves and other young people. This is achieved, amongst others, by enhancing access to finance and by providing business development services to youth-led enterprises.

ILO implements a joint program on youth employment in collaboration with other UN sister Agencies namely, UN-FAO, UN Women and UNIDO to address youth employment challenges that are manifested in the form of unemployment, underemployment, poor employment conditions and lack of an integrated approach. This joint programme is targeted at enhancing access to financial services for youth and to increase the number of young women and men in productive self and/or wage employment.