Govt YSEP set to miss 50k job target

KATHMANDU, JUN 14 -

The government’s plan to create 50,000 new jobs through the Youth Self-Employment Programme ( YSEP ) this fiscal year stands to miss its target, with only 18,000 jobs being created so far as of the first 11 months of this fiscal, according to the Youth and Small Entrepreneurs Self-Employment Fund (YSESEF).

Under the programme, the government had planned to alleviate poverty by supporting the rural youths by creating suitable jobs for them. For the purpose, the government has been providing loans up to Rs 200,000 each to rural youths through cooperatives to support them in operating micro enterprises. According to the YSESEF, it has already disbursed Rs 600 million through 559 cooperatives and a number of central cooperatives associations.

Speaking at a programme, YSESEF Executive Director Binod Kumar Guragain lamented cooperatives’ poor working capacity in the rural area and weak monitoring of the cooperatives among the reasons for missing out on the target. “The main challenge is to improve their capacity instead of allocating fund for them” he said.

The government has set the target of providing Rs 2 billion under the programme this fiscal. After the private sector banks and financial institutions (BFIs) expressed reluctance to invest prescribed four percent of their total lending citing collateral-free nature of the lending, the government directed state-run banks to extend such loans massively. The YSESEF is set to mobilise a fund of Rs 1 billion each through the government owned commercial banks, including Rastra Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank Limited and Agriculture Development Bank. Similarly, it has reached an agreement with the Small Farmers’ Development Bank to mobilise another Rs 1 billion to the needy youth in the rural areas. However, there has been meager lending from the government-owned banks.

Meanwhile, the YSESEF has decided to provide additional Rs 500 million to the selected cooperatives in second installment within a week. The YSESEF said only those cooperatives with good track record would be considered for the second time. “We will be providing the second installment only to those cooperatives who have repaid their loan on time,” said Guragain.

According to him, out of the total 559 cooperatives and central associations only 500 have repaid their loan on time. Amid concern of defaults, the Finance Ministry has halted further funding to the cooperatives for the time being.

The YSESEF has planned to step up monitoring of the participating cooperatives. YSESEF Vice-chairman Punya Prasad Regmi said they would involve representatives from the division offices of the cooperatives for the effective monitoring of the programme. “We will also recruit 60 more officials in our district coordination committee for the purpose,” he added.

 Meanwhile, the government is also planning to run the programme in the Kathmandu Valley. Currently, the programme is being operated in the areas outside the valley. “Following a growing demand from the valley-based cooperatives, the government has planned to extend this programme in the valley too,” said Krishna Devkota, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance.

Source: The Kathmandu Post