Government, through the 2019/20 financial budget which the minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Joseph Mwanamveka, presented in parliament on Monday, has included resources targeting the continuation of the Youth Internship Program which was introduced last year.

The budget has allocated K4.4 billion to the project, and out of this total, K3.1 billion is allocated for new interns while K1.3 billion is for recruitment of last year’s interns into permanent employment.

According to the statement, this year, the program will recruit 2, 000 youth aged between 21 and 30 on a ten-month internship period.

The minister said: “Government will recapitalize the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund to the tune of K8 billion and about K4 billion of this amount will be allocated for loans to the youth for the provision of actual start-up equipment.”

He further said the other K4 billion will be dedicated to support women groups and cooperatives such as Banki Nkhonde and Zokonda Amayi  as capital injection and training in different economic activities.

In July 2018 Government introduced internship programme for the youth to work in areas of agriculture, Information and Communication Technology, Manufacturing and small scale mining in order for them to gain practical experience.

According to Government, the plan was to create job opportunities for 17,000 youth in the in a period of two and half years.

Apart from this program, Government has also announced the continuation of Youth Tree Planting Program whereby an amount of K1 billion has been allocated for the care of already planted trees and planting of the new ones.