National

UNEMPLOYMENT:A cure being sought

The Minister of youth, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, has called on the youth to focus on entrepreneurship as a way of curbing on the rate of unemployment.

Nsengimana made the call yesterday at the graduation of 18 interns on completion of a ten month course in project management, advocacy, and leadership under the ReachUp run by Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Rwanda.

The minister said a big number of the youth, citing mostly the graduates still are unemployed because they wait to be employed by institutions; a tendency he said affects the growth of the economy.

Reach Up is DOT’s economic programme that trains and coaches the community in essential ICT, business, and life skills. It provides participants with tools and capabilities to help them advance their economic status by building successful, sustainable livelihoods.

Nsengimana said most of the challenges youth face are economic empowerment and access to employment.

“The only solution to create happy new generation is you  the youth becoming more patriotic and innovative in focusing more on creating business opportunities like starting up companies instead of being idle,” said Nsengimana, adding that they should not be discouraged by losses in the beginning but keep on trying.

Speaking to The New Times, Jean Mugengangabo, one of the graduates, said he is now thinking of self employment.

“Thorough the training we had with DOT, I now think of a business not employment because I have developed self confidence in me to start up something of my own,” he said.

In a separate interview, Violet Uwamutara, DOT Rwanda country’s director, said the graduates are trained to deliver entrepreneurship curricula to individuals and small business owners, and act as mentors helping participants in developing business plans.

“So far, 103 interns have been recruited from their communities and 80 more will be recruited mid this year and we are very optimistic they will bring a change in their communities,” she said.

According to Uwamutara, the programme has seen 21 cooperatives created, 200 participants got jobs and130 have enrolled in educational institutions.

DOT Rwanda targets to empower over 32,000 community members in various districts in enterprise formation and job creation.

DOT an international organisation that creates educational and economic opportunities by offering skills in ICT.

Contact email: fred.ndoli[at]newtimes.co.rw