Job opportunities were offered to 5.16 million people in the second half of GTP II according to Asefa Ferede, head of Public Relations of the Federal Urban Job Creation and Food Security Agency. Over 60% of them are youngsters.
With the support of the government, the Agency renders short-term training for job seeker youngsters in different kinds of fields, addressing over 2.8 million people and lends money based on savings. The Agency is facilitating job opportunities, especially for young people. In the proposal of the GDP II, a plan was set to lend 21 billion Birr. While the plan is halfway through, about 18.1 billion Birr has already been given out with a total of 933,000 people beneficiaries.
The Agency had urged beneficiaries to save about 17 billion Birr, and they saved over 20.5 billion Birr, which is above the plan. This was made possible by mobilising youngsters and students engaged in TVET. The GDP II was also planning to create market links which have so far resulted in 37.6 billion Birr and benefited 2.6 million people.
According to Asefa, the Agency is institutionalized to facilitate job opportunities and security of food both at the federal and state level. It also plans and assesses different activities in the sector, builds the capacity of the unemployed and generally works on averting hurdles on the way to success.
There are different challenges that affect the sector such as lack of good governance, corruption, the dearth of working places and lack of training, even if the government is highly working on these shortfalls for a better outcome. Asefa added that creating job opportunities and organizing jobless people in Micro and Small Enterprises is a very effective way of developing a country’s economy. This enterprise will also help for the transformation of knowledge and technology. Products produced by enterprises will curtail the outflow of foreign currency.
It is known that the major problem for most developing countries is poor economic performance, low economic growth, which is manifested in low economic activity and little investment. However, currently, Ethiopia is trying to overcome this challenge by engaging the people in small scale enterprises, which is effective in reducing the problem of unemployment.
Source: The Ethiopian Herald
