A YOUTH organisation, Youth Spotlight, has unveiled plans to launch a revolving fund scheme aimed at empowering young people in Manicaland participating in the tourism, agriculture, and mining sectors.
The initiative seeks to support the Vision 2030 agenda, which seeks to transform the country into an upper middle-income society.
Youth Spotlight, formed through the merger of Rock of Ages Youth Association, ZIYAC, and Great Dykes Association, announced its plans during the establishment of its headquarters in Nyanga, last week.
The revolving fund will provide young entrepreneurs with access to capital, training, and mentorship, enabling them to establish and grow their businesses in the targeted sectors, and in return, contribute to the creation of employment opportunities, stimulation of economic growth, and poverty reduction in the province.
The event, held under the theme – Promoting Youth Talents, Tourism and Environmental Stewardship – sought to induct youths from the province into the business network.
Youth Spotlight vice-chairman, Mr Norman Deeds said the ceremony was a grassroots outreach to set structures for the empowerment of young people so that they can contribute to national economic growth and prosperity.
“Our goals are to nurture skills development and set up mentorship programmes which will drive positive youth engagement in community service and social issues. I implore youths to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship, stewardship and responsibility to carry the economy forward. We want to leverage youth creativity and innovation so that the nation attains President Mnangagwa’s vision of an upper middle-income economy by 2030,” he said.
Several youths were inducted into the leading provincial delegation, which will coordinate funding for youth-led businesses and economic ventures – straddling tourism, hospitality, and environmental conservation.
Youth Spotlight advisor, Miss Precious Chifamba explained how the initiative will assist and offer consultative services to young entrepreneurs.
“The initiative seeks to confront the challenge of lack of financial opportunities for youths with little or no collateral. The revolving fund scheme will assist youths dedicated to entrepreneurship, by, not only supplying a cash boost their business, but by also availing business networks which one can tap into to provide services across the nation. In our selection of the business ventures, we will be looking into the most innovative start-ups so that as they make a profit, while we recoup our investment so that we assist other deserving youths. By so doing, we can divert many away from drug and substance abuse. Manicaland, by virtue of having the first branch established, will be the first beneficiary at the beginning of 2026.
“Our corporate social responsibility will also be working with people in the ages from 13 to 18 years to deal with social ills and prevent suicide. We need to uplift the living conditions of young citizens in the province,” she said.
Nyanga District Development Co-ordinator, Mr Edmore Chikomo applauded the initiative, given its potential impact of youth empowerment. “I want to thank you for coming up and discussing business opportunities available for youths vested in environmental conservation and other ventures. We all know that Nyanga has all agricultural regions – from Region One to Five, which means it is a major economic player straddling agriculture to tourism, among other ventures.
This thriving business environment puts conservation efforts forward, and by this, we position ourselves in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, UN Agenda 2063, Vision 2030 and National Development Strategy (NDS2).
“I am glad that we also discussed the issue of drug and substance abuse. As a province, we have not been spared and there is need to address this scourge to protect our future – if we are too late, then we will miss out on the labour opportunity coming in from the economic population,” he said.-herald
New revolving fund for youths
