GITEGA, April 23rd (ABP) – The President of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of the Republic of Burundi, on Thursday 18 April 2024, opened the National Youth Conference, 2024 edition, organised from 17 to 18 April 2024, by the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Youth, Sports and Culture, at the Ingoma Stadium in Gitega (central Burundi), under the theme: “Youth, let’s all work together to achieve the vision of an emerging country in 2040 and a developed country in 2060”, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
That national youth conference was also attended by the country’s various senior executives, including the Vice-President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Ombudsman, certain ministers and other executives.
In his speech, the President of the Republic praised the development progress that Burundi has already made thanks to civic education. He called on young people to come up with progressive plans for their own development, even if most of them want to succeed in a short period of time. According to the Head of State, most of those who have succeeded started their projects with little money. He called on young unemployed people to embrace the intelligence and knowledge they have acquired in order to be creative.
Burundi Head of State also called on young people to seek economic freedom through entrepreneurship, to protect nature and to manage profits properly. He pointed out that no one can become rich by begging. He encouraged government officials to support development, particularly in the agricultural and livestock sectors.
President Ndayishimiye gave five million BIF as start-up capital to five young people to get their projects off the ground. He pointed out that next year, those young people will each have at least three million BIF. He also granted one million Bu francs to two students from the Lycée Urbain Stade, a girl and a boy, to buy two goats for the girl and two pigs for the boy to help them develop.
In his welcome speech, the governor of Gitega province, Vénant Manirambona, expressed his satisfaction that most of the young people were carrying out income-generating projects to create their own jobs and give them to others.
Governor Manirambona encouraged the young people who are continuing to develop their talents by setting up innovative projects. To that end, he encouraged Mr Eric Vyumvuhore, a young man from the Rutegama hill in the commune and province of Gitega, who is currently carrying out trials on the manufacture of fertiliser from rabbit urine.
In his presentation on the role of the Youth Economic Empowerment and Employment Programme (PAEEEJ) in achieving Vision 2040-2060, Mr Hassan Kibeya of the PAEEJ said that the PAEEJ was truly the foundation of Burundi’s development, because according to him, that programme was helping in the structural transformation of the country’s economy, in strengthening national security and in protecting the environment, to name but a few.
He also pointed out that PAEEJ is in the process of implementing several projects, such as the structural project to build a rabbit breeding centre in Cibitoke province, and also wants to build a cattle feed processing plant in Mwaro. He urged young people to work hard to help achieve that vision, because according to Kibeya, youth entrepreneurship is a passport to development for the country.