District youth representatives have been challenged to focus on performance contracts (Imihigo) that will leave a visible impact on the fellow youth at the grassroots.

The call was made by Rosemary Mbabazi, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth and ICT, during the signing of this year’s Imihigo for the National Youth Council representatives on the district level on Friday in Kigali.

The same event also included the evaluation of 2013/2014 performance contracts by the National Youth Council (NYC).

"We can’t be happy about the good performance rates from the youth councils; we know we are setting targets that are below our standards. We can do better than this by focusing on impact left by the performance contracts we sign every year,” Mbabazi said.

"The impact is currently not so visible at the grassroots. We have to be practical, and help our fellow youth in villages develop economically.”

This is the third year running that Imigiho contracts are signed by the National Youth Council and its representatives.

Imihigo performance

Nyagatare emerged the best performer of the 30 districts, for last financial year with 97 per cent of its performance contracts attained, while Ngororero was the underperformer with 43 per cent.Alphonse Nkuranga, the executive secretary of NYC, pushed for job creation as the route to achieving desired development objectives in youth.

"We haven’t reached our goal yet. More cooperatives, saving schemes, and job creation initiatives will take us where we want to be. The government is willing to support your projects,” he said.

Available reports indicate that on average, 125,000 youths from tertiary institutions join the labour market every year.

However, only 104,000 jobs are created in the same timeframe, leaving a gap of over 20,000 youth unemployed annually.

"The Vision 2020’s main goal is to have a private sector-led economy, we can’t achieve that when the youth are not developing their skills and putting it to good use. Be practical in your goals and strive to leave a legacy in all that you do,” Mbabazi said.

Jean Damascene Hishamunda, a youth representative from Ngororero, said among the reasons his district came last in attaining its performance objectives was low participation of the youth in development programmes, such as youth savings and cooperatives unions.

"We hope to engage in Agakiriro (national technical cooperatives introduced at the district level), and start up several youth programmes aligning them to national development agenda. Through this, we hope to achieve our targets for this year,” Hishamunda said.

Nobert Shyerezo, the coordinator of NYC, told youth leaders not to rely on the government handouts, but learn to fund their own projects.

"We should not always look up to the government for every single franc we need to develop,” Shyerezo said.

"This is a country that has restored its dignity through sacrifices made by our parents, so we should sacrifice our energy and skills to develop our nation. Through savings, we can fund our own projects.”