CEDA HOSTS PRESS BRIEFING

Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - 16:15

PRESS BRIEFING

CEDA HOUSE

20 JUNE 2017

CEDA: Committed to Youth Empowerment

The Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) exists to provide financial and technical support to businesses with a view to promoting viable and sustainable citizen owned enterprises.

Over the years, CEDA has promoted entrepreneurship, job creation and youth empowerment through provision of funding, business advisory as well as training and mentoring services for new and seasoned entrepreneurs. In pursuit of its mandate, CEDA has always been cognisant of the importance of empowering the youth both within the Agency and in their entrepreneurship pursuits. This is because we strongly believe that young people are not only key drivers of future prosperity, but also a vital untapped human resource. We believe that if we invest effectively in the youth, they can be a future demographic dividend that will foster economic growth and stability. As CEDA, we will support our government’s efforts to engage the youth as partners in development and future leaders. We believe an empowered youth can uplift themselves, their families and communities out of poverty.

Government has committed to support the operations of CEDA on an ongoing basis. The Agency receives Government subvention each year, which is geared towards funding businesses. The Agency also generates income in the form of interest and other income and collection on loans already financed which is used to finance operational expenses and augment Government subvention. Government has given CEDA grants amounting to P934.7 million over the last three years and the Agency disbursed P1.19 billion over the same period, see table below. In terms of collections, the Agency achieved a collection rate of 105% in the financial year ending March 2017.

	2017	2016	2015	Total
Govt. Subvention	271,552,700.00	326,156,584.00	337,000,000.00	934,709,284.00
Disbursement	445,781,100.79	441,783,364.55	302,906,913.00	1,190,471,378.34

Collections:

Financial Year	Target (BWP)	Actual (BWP)	Rate
2014/2015	264 million	238 million	90%
2015/2016	283 million	265 million	94%
2016/2017	330 million	346 million	105%

Just recently, CEDA launched the University Challenge in collaboration with the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA). This initiative offers P200 000 funding for any student who can come up with an implementable solution to address any of the key challenges facing Botswana today. In order to encourage entrepreneurship amongst women, winning proposals from female candidates will receive an extra P50 000, bringing the total funding for female candidates to P250 000.

More than anything else, the University Challenge aims at bringing the youth on board and encourage them to participate in the economy. The challenge will focus on innovative and fresh ideas that will foster uptake of new and emerging technologies. Through the University Challenge, CEDA aims to mobilize the youth to be the drivers of innovation and technology; and also inspire them to deliver practical and market-oriented solutions to Botswana’s challenges.

The University Challenge is perfectly aligned to assisting the youth and driving their competitive nature. There are more young people in the world today than ever before. However, too many of these young people fail to realise their dreams because of poverty, discrimination or lack of information. We believe that our investment in the youth will enable them to transform the future.

Key Milestones for the University Challenge:

Activity	Dates/Timing
1. Launch date and opening of applications	1 June 2017	· The CEDA/ DBSA University challenge was officially launched on 1 June 2017 at Gaborone International Convention Centre by His Honour, The Vice President of the Republic of Botswana, Mr E.K Masisi. · The applications were immediately available to the students after this launch online on the CEDA website as well as all the universities websites.
2. Activation of the University Challenge	1 June – 25 September 2017	· Various activities followed after the launch, being engagements with the print, radio, television and social media. · Activations to be held at all 10 universities to enhance participation and awareness of the CEDA/DBSA University Challenge.
3. Applications Closing date	25 September 2017	· No applications will be received by the Secretariat later than 25 September 2017.
4. Screening of applications	26 September -7 October 2017	· All the applications received will be screened for compliance by the Secretariat.
5. Preliminary Assessment by judges	8-14 October 2017	· Judging begins. The judges will come up with the 10 finalists who will be announced in the media and all social platforms.
6. Presentation by the 10 finalists	15-20 October 2017	· The selection panel will conduct face-to-face interviews with the top 10 nominees. The nominees will appear personally before the judges and present how the innovation will work as per the requirements of the Challenge. · The interviews will be conducted just before the awards ceremony. The winner would be chosen after these presentations and announced during the awards ceremony.
7. Awards Ceremony	31 October 2017	· The CEDA/ DBSA University Challenge 2017 winner will be announced and awarded at a special ceremony to be held on 31 October 2017 at GICC.

To date, CEDA has funded 1 188 youth enterprises to a total of over P575 million (P575 016 126, 13) in the Agribusiness, Property & Manufacturing as well as the Services sectors.

We believe it is important to provide training for youth entrepreneurs because they are a potential human resource base for development. Since 2014, CEDA has provided training to 277 young entrepreneurs. 13 youth underwent financial training in 2013/14; while 77 were trained on piggery production in the year 2015/16. CEDA has also provided training and mentoring for a total 188 youth in procurement, business management and financial literacy since 2016.

CEDA’s commitment to youth is not just at Fund level. The Agency has over the years developed policies that have supported young employees. In the year 2010/11, CEDA employed 22 young people; of whom 14 were interns, 7 permanently employed and 1 employed on a temporary basis. The next year (2012/12), we had increased the number of permanently employed youth to 14, while only 4 were interns. In the year 2016/17, we had a total 46 young people working at CEDA; 14 of whom were permanently employed while 25 were on temporary employment and 7 were interns. From the year 2010 to date, 159 young people have passed through our hands, 42 as interns, 66 as permanent employees, 37 as temporary staff and 14 on attachment. These figures are testimony of our commitment to youth empowerment even in our daily operations. Because of their energy, creativity and innovation, many of the young people who came to CEDA either as interns or on attachment ended up being employed on permanent basis.

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For any further information or clarity kindly contact:

Ms. Anno Tshipa

Head – Marketing and Communications

Tel: +267 399 1026

Fax: +267 395 1823

Email: atshipa@ceda.co.bw