Africa-Press – Botswana. About 2 770 youth were funded through the Youth Development Fund (YDF) since April 2019 to date, says Assistant Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Mr Buti Billy.
He said the programme had never been suspended or stopped and that there was currently an ongoing call for proposals running from July 31 to September 2023.
Mr Billy said there was no social safety nets that were upgraded or rolled out post COVID-19.
“Government had at the height of COVID-19 introduced the COVID relief fund for the youth, sport and arts culture sectors,” he said.
He noted that the relief was a wage subsidy offered for a three months period to YDF funded business owners and their employees, sports persons and artists who were all affected by COVID and its restrictions.
Serowe South MP, Leepetswe Lesedi had asked the minister to state the number of people who had benefited from YDF from April 2019 to date, and which safety nets had been upgraded to cushion the poor and unemployed against the effects of COVID-19.
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