By Cathy Maulidi:
The National Youth Council of Malawi Executive Director Rex Chapota Friday asked President Lazarus Chakwera to consider pushing upward the annual youth budget from K500 million to K5 billion.
Chapota made the plea during a presidential youth engagement that took place at Kamuzu Palace Friday at the invitation of the President.
“Apart from lack of access to education, the youths are also frustrated with high levels of unemployment. Unemployment casts a long shadow over the prospects of our youth,” he said.
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He pleaded with the President for his leadership to consider increasing an annual allocation towards the National Youth Service in order to reach out to 25,000 youth with a package of mindset change, skills development and civic engagement.
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“Let’s invest in our youth to create 100,000 entrepreneurs, ensure 30 percent representation in governance and celebrate their contributions during the National Youth Patriotism Celebration Week and most importantly let’s have a Young Innovators Fund which should be aimed at supporting skills and talents of young people,” he said.
Chakwera acknowledged the numerous challenges young people face, including unemployment, limited access to education and healthcare, gender-based violence, and economic exclusion.
He emphasised his government’s commitment to addressing these issues through various interventions including loans from the National Economic Empowerment Fund.
Chakwera, however, urged the youth to be patriotic and hardworking.
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“Be proactive, be patriotic, be patient, be principled, and be change-makers…time is gone for you to see yourself as beneficiaries and just recipients of services.
“You need to rise up with your innovations, ideas, and energy and engage in the development process so that no one takes you for granted but respects you as key actors of our national development process,” Chakwera said.
He has since declared an engagement with the youth to be an annual event.
He also announced plans to establish an inter-ministerial taskforce on youth to ensure effective implementation of the National Youth Policy (2023-2028) across all government ministries.
