Mnangagwa avails $12m youth facility

GOVERNMENT has availed a $12 million loan facility for youths and is now working on the guidelines and conditions for accessing the money.

Addressing youths during the launch of the #EDhasMyVote campaign in Midlands over the weekend, deputy secretary for Youth Affairs in the Politburo, Lewis Matutu said the party had resolved that the loans should not be issued in monetary form to avoid non-performing loans.

He said the Empowerment Bank, which will be issuing loans, will only release the money to suppliers of equipment and implements that the applicant want to acquire with the loan.

Matutu said this decision came after realising that most loans accessed by the youths under a similar facility were abused and not repaid.

"Youths loans are something that we are working on. We have been discussing with the bank that will be managing the loans so that they set the guidelines on how they can be accessed and disbursed.

"We are trying to avoid the previous scenario where youths were given loans and most defaulted on their repayments for various reasons.

"We have to sit down with the bank, the minister and the youths to see and decide on the best approach to avoid the issue of non-performing loans," he said.