||Kharas Governor, Aletha Frederick, said the country’s young demographic majority has a meaningful role to play in championing and implementing programs that will empower and push fellow young people into mainstream economic activities.
Frederick made these remarks here on Friday when the government officially handed over the Namibia Grape Company to the National Youth Service.
“Namibia is set to benefit from the potentially high demographic dividend that comes with a young population, for which the window of opportunities was opened with the independence of this country,” said Frederick.
She said it is commendable that numerous strategic interventions were made so far to facilitate integrated and coherent socio-economic youth economic empowerment programs.
However, she however added that there is a need to bring more programs that will directly and deliberately integrate youth into the mainstream economy to create sustainable livelihoods for young people that would increase their income, asset, and skills opportunities.
Frederick further said higher education institutions will play a critical role in capacity development and employability adding that the region has made significant strides to build an effective and functional higher education ecosystem with the presence of institutions of higher learning to assist with capacity building and technological enhancement for greater industrialization of industries in the region.
“The presence of University of Namibia Southern Campus coupled with the cooperation initiative with my office and world food program is positioned to boost agricultural productivity and this gives us new impetus to support the government’s objective aimed at eradicating poverty, zero hunger, and creating much-needed jobs for our people,” she said.
The governor said she remains optimistic about the fact that the region is open for business, regional cooperation, global trade and small and medium enterprise development, in which she wants to see young people flourishing.
“My office is open to working together with all stakeholders in different sectors to provide coherent strategic leadership and coordination to advance regional development and planning, as the overseer of service delivery and implementation of government programs in support of regional and national priorities and plans,” said Frederick.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
