Prime
$5m earmarked for youth start-ups
What you need to know:
- The commissioner in charge of micro, small and medium enterprises at the Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives, Dr Joshua Mutambi said there is no way the country will maintain the growth of its economy without engaging the youth to be innovative because they comprise 70 percent of the population.
The Youth Member of Parliament for the Northern region, Mr Boniface Okot has appealed to his constituents to take advantage of the available opportunities to better their lives.
He acknowledges that the greatest strategic resource for any country is the youth who must be fully empowered.
He asked the government to formulate a comprehensive start-up ecosystem that will be used to support the young people whose businesses have failed due to lack of capital and stiff competition.
“The greatest and most strategic resource for any nation is not its diamonds, it’s not its Gold or fuels but the Youth, therefore, the youth must be empowered”, he said at a ceremony where the Youth Start-up Academy -Uganda was engaging a Korean venture capital company to access funding and promote the growth of Youth-related start-up businesses in the country.
The engagement attracted various stakeholders who included government officials from the Ministry of Trade Cooperative and Industry, the Members of the parliament of Uganda, and the Korean capital venture company the convener of the meeting.
The Korean company, Venture Port pledged to inject over $5 million into selected local youth start-ups.
The commissioner in charge of micro, small and medium enterprises at the Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives, Dr Joshua Mutambi said there is no way the country will maintain the growth of its economy without engaging the youth to be innovative because they comprise 70 percent of the population.
“What is required is to ensure that the government creates an enabling environment so that they can be able to start and grow their businesses, so it’s very important that we provide them enough space, policies, and strategies that will make them job creators so that social and economic development can be improved,” he said.
