Durban — On Thursday at the 46th commemoration of Youth Day, at Nordale Sports Field in Mtubatuba Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, Premier Sihle Zikalala announced R100 million in funding for the Youth Business Empowerment Fund, aimed at creating successful young entrepreneurs.
Zikalala said that KwaZulu-Natal was the first province to announce a dedicated fund for youth enterprise development, which he said, demonstrated the province’s seriousness about changing the patterns of ownership and management of the economy, through radical economic transformation.
“The fund seeks to end the economic exclusion from and marginalisation of black youth in the mainstream economy. We are unambiguous that the KwaZulu-Natal economy needs to be deracialised and it must reflect the demographics of our province, the majority of whom are black and young Africans.”
He said that through the KwaZulu-Natal Growth Fund and Operation Vula, the necessary funding was provided to support black enterprise development and to ignite an entrepreneurial revolution that held the promise of creating the millions of jobs needed.
“We are also finalising the township and rural economy strategy to ensure that our townships and villages become engines of economic growth and job creation.
“We disbursed R69 million towards the Youth Empowerment Fund during the first round. Currently, the province is finalising allocations of the second round at R50 million. The third round, which will be R100 million, will be advertised before the end of the financial year,” he said.
Zikalala said due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in 2020, the youth fund could not be disbursed, and the funds were rolled over to the 2021/2022 financial year.
“The advert/call for the second roll out for application for the youth fund was released on July 1, 2021 for 30 days. It was advertised in the local newspapers (Ilanga, Isolezwe, The Mercury, The Witness), provincial radio stations and KZN Government social media platform pages. Applications were distributed to all districts, local municipalities and at the EDTEA (Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs) district offices in the province. Applications were also available online.”
He said applications were collected in all districts from August 1 to August 31, 2021, and 4 123 applications were received.
“OTP (Office of the Premier) prepared an MOA with the Growth Fund in line with the previous Memorandum of Understanding. A deviation was sourced from Provincial Treasury to utilise KGFT as a single source Fund Manager. Funds were transferred to KGFT by OTP and EDTEA to the value of R50 million, R20 million and R3 million for management fees respectively,” said Zikalala.
He said the desktop screening of applications had been finalised and that the investment team had started conducting due diligence site visits, having already been to the Ugu, Harry Gwala and Ilembe districts.
“It is envisaged that the process will be completed by the end of July 2022, as per the implementation plan. The investment team is focusing on this work daily.”
Daily News