Close to 600 young people from the Kavango West Region have been recruited as casual workers to clear a 20-hectare plot at Nkurenkuru for the construction of a stadium and a multipurpose youth centre.

Speaking to Nampa on Thursday, Regional Youth Officer Anna-Marie Kasela said the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service (MSYNS) decided to ensure local youth are employed in contributing to the process.

“The young people are being paid N.dollars 116 per day each for 15 days. For the 2023/24 financial year, N.dollars 2 million was allocated for clearing as well as basic services such as water and electricity to be installed,” Kasela said.

She said an extra N.dollars 10 million was allocated for the construction of a football pitch, netball as well as volleyball courts.

Kasela said the unemployed youth will clear the piece of land after which bulldozers will be brought in to finish the work.

“This way the young people will be able to get something out of the project and buy themselves toiletries and food while some can start small businesses to empower themselves economically,” she stated.

Kasela says the high number of unemployed youth is of great concern, and called on other ministries to equally afford unskilled young people opportunities to earn through gainful employment where these arise.

Kasela called on other stakeholders to also consider young people for these kind of projects as they are the ones who need the money to stop them from indulging in harmful practices.

According to Kasela, the ministry fenced off the area already in 2018/19 after which the ministry halted the project due to a low budget ceiling allocated to the capital project.

Meanwhile, she said the young people will do the casual work in intervals up to 23 June, with earthwork done by machines to follow.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency