YSESEF set to monitor fund disbursement by co-ops

KATHMANDU, JUNE 14:

Youth and Small Enterprises Self Employment Fund (YSESEF) is planning to strengthen its monitoring wing to maintain financial discipline of funds disbursed by cooperatives. The fund has distributed Rs 300 million seed money to young entrepreneurs through 549 cooperatives across the country. The fund will soon hire 60 people to monitor cooperatives, said vice president of the fund Prof Dr Punya Prasad Regmi. “The staff will monitor cooperatives and its loan distribution procedure,” he said, adding that the fund will not tolerate any misuse

of funds by cooperative and entrepreneurs. He said that the fund will disburse the second installment of the fund to cooperatives within a week.

According to him, the fund is also developing a long-term plan to develop thousands of youth entrepreneurs in the future.

“We are developing a 10-year plan to utilise resources at the grassroots level,” he said. “We are aware that the fund must reach remote areas.”

Executive director at the fund Binod Prasad Guragai said that the fund is planning to launch ‘One Village One Product’ programme.

“The fund wants to expand the programme to

all districts,” he said. YSESEF is planning to coordinate with other agencies working in the field. The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry has been promoting the concept.

The fund will distribute about Rs two billion this year to support 30,000 youths to help them materialise their dream of being an entrepreneur. “The next installment of Rs 500 million will be disbursed soon. We will mobilise the money through banks and cooperatives,” he said.

According to joint secretary at the ministry of finance Keshav Devkota, the ministry is developing a mechanism to help the fund expand its outreach in remote areas. Similarly, registrar at the Department of Cooperatives Kedar Neupane assured that the department will monitor cooperatives that are responsible for distributing the money. “Our department and offices will monitor cooperatives engaged in the process,” he said.

President of National Cooperatives Association Keshav Badal urged the authorities to be aware in stopping the misuse of the fund. The fund should also provide entrepreneurship skills to those youth who take loans from the fund, he said.

Source: THT