GITEGA January 9th (ABP) – The National Coordinator of the Youth Economic Empowerment and Employment Program (PAEEJ), Mr. Manirakiza Désiré, presented on Friday in a news conference hosted in Gitega (center of the country), the assessment of half-yearly achievements from July to December 2022.
In the training and awareness sector, Mr. Manirakiza indicated that during this 6-month period, the PAEEJ directly trained 5,617 young people in various fields including crafts, farming techniques, job search, drawing of business plan, and so on. He specified that 14,102 young people were trained indirectly. He also indicated that 1866 young people were recruited as professional trainees out of 2000 planned and 181 jobs actually created.
The national coordinator of the youth economic empowerment and employment program reported that out of 335 planned projects in farming, 376 have been funded. In agro-food processing, they financed 427 projects out of 416 planned, he added. But he did not forget to point out some challenges encountered. These include the diversion of projects for some young people who have obtained funding, the lack of a flow market for broiler chickens, mental destabilization, to name but a few.
Based on this, Mr. Manirakiza said that for the moment, the PAEEJ has more than 25 tons of broiler chickens to consume but that they have lacked the flow market. He called on Burundians to love products made or raised locally instead of always sourcing imported products. As examples, he indicated that they ran out of customers for the chickens slaughtered on January 1st. The kilo was at 12 thousand BIF at the time when the kilo of imported chicken costs about 20 thousand BIF. He pointed out that they have contacted the ministry in charge of foreign affairs and cooperation to find them a sales market in other countries.
The PAEEJ national coordinator called on young people who apply for funding to avoid the diversion of projects, as observed in some provinces of the country. He gave the example of a young from Bujumbura province whom the PAEEJ had financed to make the flour for the porridge but that he used this money by lending it to other young people for a monthly interest of 5% each.
He pointed out that the PAEEJ is ready to finance certain agricultural projects. To that end, he invited young people to carry out projects for the cultivation of maize and soybeans compared to other crops, because according to him, the broilers raised by the cooperatives consume those products. As for him, these young people will easily have financing and a market to sell the harvest.
It should be noted that the national coordinator of the PAEEJ invited young girls to draw up and submit their projects within that institution to obtain funding because, according to him, the observation is that among the projects already funded, those of girls are very minimal.