Kisii County Youth Enterprise Fund chairperson Emmanuel Odero has challenged young men to apply for loans from the kitty towards realisation of the country’s Vision 2030.
Speaking on Thursday at Kisii University in a forum organised by accounting students, Odero urged youths to be proactive and take advantage of the loans to start projects that can help them improve their standards of living.
“It’s quite unfortunate that youths are taking the enterprise fund for granted. The rampant unemployment rate cannot be always blamed at the government since we have idle cash in our offices,” lamented Odero.
He said the enterprise fund loans are easily affordable since they can be acquired at lower interest rates.
“Our interest rates are fair compared to other credit banks and money lending agencies because the government has subsidised the loans,” added Odero.
He noted that most youths from the county have remained in darkness, the reason why they blame the day’s government for their economic predicaments.
“It is unfortunate that Kisii County has recorded a very dismal figure of those interested in the kitty,” the chairman said.
He said youths should work extra hard to earn a living and desist from always complaining of marginalisation in terms of employment opportunities.
“There are many jobs in the country. It’s only that youths have always shown no interest to attain them. Very few have formed groups for easy disbursement of the funds for accelerated economic development,” said Odero.
Among loans given by the Youth Fund Enterprise include poultry incubator loans, green house loans and film production loans. Youths are given up to three years to repay them.
Youth enterprise fund was established in 2007 and subsequently transformed in a state corporation as a flagship of vision 2030.
Since its establishment, it has supported more than 32,000 youths to market their products outside the country besides assisting more than 2,000 youths to secure employment countrywide.