The Ministry of Youth and Sports has oriented district council officials and the youth on the recently launched National Youth Service (NYS) through which the ministry seeks to create 20,000 jobs.
In her speech, Judith Msusa, director of youth in the Ministry of Youth, said implementation of National Youth Service program is going to happen at district councils hence the District Commissioners being the controlling officers need to understand what the program is all about for them to ably support it.
She added that young people who will be involved in the program will be mobilised through constituencies.
“We are looking at statistics that are coming from constituencies, the numbers of young people that are there and will be for us easier to target,” she said.
She added that the ministry will continue working to create jobs for youths in the country.
“We also have other aspects within the ministry that have also created jobs for the youth,” said Msusa.
M’mbelwa District Commissioner Rodney Simwaka said the program is very useful to the youths of Malawi.
“Youth make 40 percent of the population of Malawi, and this program is actually tapping into that potential. We are very excited, we are re-introducing the youth program of course in a different form so I find it very useful,” he said.
Ruth Chavula, a youth representative, commended Government for the program saying most of the youth are not skilled despite graduating from different universities and colleges.
“The initiative is going to help us young people because it’s talking about skills development that the young people needs so much. We can be graduates from universities technical colleges but we are unemployed because some of us lack those kind of skills, in as much as we go to the colleges we don’t get much of those skills that this program is going to offer.
“So we are happy that this program is targeting us young people and it is going to help both those that are in schools and those who are out of school,” she said.
Parliament approved the K3.5 billion in the 2022/2023 national budget for the implementation of the programme, which is targeting about 20,000 young people across the country in all constituencies per year.
Malawi President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera launched the program in Neno district.
