The Youth and Small Entrepreneur Self-Employment Fund (YSESEF) said it would be starting the third phase of its programme under which Rs 400 million will be distributed to create jobs for 9,000 more youths.

YSESEF, an ambitious government programme designed to create jobs for unemployed young people by providing subsidized loans to start small businesses, was launched in 2009.

YSESEF Executive Director Binod Guragain said Rs 2.50 billion had been invested under the programme so far which has provided employment to 21,000 youths. “Among them, over 60 percent are engaged in the production business,” said Guragain, speaking at an interaction organised here on Sunday. According to him, a sum of Rs 1 billion that remained unutilized has been returned to the government. Guragain said that jobs could be created for an additional 50,000 people if one-third of the loans that banks and financial institutions provide to the deprived sector were made available to the programme. 

Nepal Rastra Bank has categorized loans issued through this programme as deprived sector lending.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said there was a need for operating such micro-level programmes effectively mainly in rural areas. “This could help reduce the shortage of manpower in the production business and rural agriculture sectors,” said Mahat. “There is a need for developing a work culture in almost every sector.”

Participants at the meeting said that due to lack of adequate employment opportunities in the country, many Nepalis had been forced to go abroad. The remittance sent by them has been an important source of funds for running the country’s economy.

Former finance minister Prakash Chandra Lohani said an increasing dependence on remittance had affected the competitiveness of the whole economy. “There is a need for forming an all-party youth council to educate youths which could help achieve the desired results of programmes like the YSESEF.”

The youth self-employment programme under the YSESEF is being run through 1,122 cooperatives in 73 districts. Highlighting the need for establishing the YSESEF, former finance minister Barsha Man Pun said the programme had been launched in a bid to achieve economic transformation by utilizing local resources.  Pun called for focusing more on the economic agenda than the political agenda. “Political intervention in programmes like the YSESEF should be cut. There is a need to formulate a common programme with all the political parties,” Pun said.

Published on: 10 March 2014 | The Kathmandu Post