Mardef finalizes paperwork on YEDF

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Everything is ready for Malawi Rural Development Fund (Mardef) to start disbursing loans to the youth entrepreneurs who had applied for loans in the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (Yedf), Minister of Youth Development and Sports, Dr. Lucius Kanyumba said on Friday.

Kanyumba made the remarks in Blantyre on the sidelines of closing ceremony for the Project Management and Business Plan writing course for 43 young people drawn different youth organizations scattered across the country.

The writing course was organized by National Youth Council of Malawi (Nycom) with funding from Unicef.

In his remarks, Kanyumba explained that Mardef had finished all paper work to do with the youth fund and that the list of first beneficiaries will be released this week.

“Probably by next week (this week), you may see the list of first beneficiaries in the media. But I would like to ask the would-be beneficiaries wisely and pay back in time so that others can benefit as well. As you know this is a revolving fund,” said Kanyumba.

Thus the minister commended Nycom for organizing the training saying it will that it was a necessary tool for empowering young people with skills that would help them to come up with business plans and proposals that can win the donors’ heart.

“One of the problems the youth have had is lack of skills for writing convincing business plans and proposals. This training is very important as it will help some of them to get employment while others will start small businesses and thus contribute towards the country’s economic growth and reduce the country’s dependency burden,” Kanyumba emphasized.

Nycom director Aubrey Chibwana thanked Unicef for making funding available for the course.

“We’re really grateful to our donors for their support. This training will go a long way in reducing the burden of writing good proposals that young project managers used to have in their organizations,” said Chibwana.

A representative of the students, Harvey Chimaliro from Concerned Youth Organization, said the course will help in improving efficiency and effectiveness in the resource mobilization of their organizations.

Chimaliro, however, asked Nycom and the ministry to consider providing their organizations with computers saying many of them did not have.

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