K13 billion project creates 14,933 jobs in Malawi


Ngara community college

African Development Bank (AfDB) says the USD12.1 million (about K13 billion) Jobs for Youth in Malawi project helped create 14,933 jobs for youth in Malawi between 2017 and 2022.

The African Development Fund, the concessional lending arm of the African Development Bank Group, had provided a loan of $10.45 million and a grant of $1.73 million to Malawi for the project’s implementation between 2017 and 2022.

The objective was to improve the employability of the country’s youth — women and men — by providing them with decent work, thereby promoting their economic empowerment.

It also aimed to help them develop sustainable entrepreneurship. The Jobs for Youth in Malawi project focused on both training and technical assistance to training institutes. In addition, the initiative helped to provide practical training for out-of-school youths and to set up an internship programme for youths.

According to a project report released by the bank on 24 January 2023, thousands of youths in Malawi have gained employment and some have even created jobs for their peers, thanks to the project supported by the African Development Bank.

“A total of 14,933 jobs are estimated to have been created through the business incubation, formal training  and  also  youth  internship  programme.

“Some of them went on to create jobs for others, and provide internships and vocational training through the business incubation programme in targeted sectors such as manufacturing, information and communication technology, agriculture and small-scale mining. These training programmes have resulted in the creation of 5,276 businesses,” the bank said in its report.

It added that a business to business trade facilitation training programme for 110 young people was delivered and 30 young people signed business deals to be supplying horticulture and other agricultural produce to large supermarkets and other agro-produce off-takers.

As part of the project, some funds were reallocated to the construction of four technical colleges for training in the selected sectors—mining, manufacturing, ICT and agriculture.

The construction of technical colleges in Ngara, Mbandira, Neno and Naminjiwa under the project has been completed. The bank further said furniture and equipment have been installed, and the colleges are now operational.

“At the time of the project’s conclusion, two of the four colleges had already enrolled a total of 225 youth, 114 youth in the garment sector and 111 in agriculture,” the bank said.

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