YOUTH Empowerment minister Tinoda Machakaire, on Friday bemoaned Treasury’s failure to to settle approved money allocations in the 2024 budget saying it was crippling the ministry’s activities
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube is set to announce his 2025 budget later this month.
There was a pre-budget seminar in Bulawayo last week where legislators also raised concern about failure to settle approved budgets with Machakaire taking aim at Ncube’s ministry for the anomaly.
Machakaire’s ministry was allocated $392 million in the 2024 budget to support youth development and empowerment programmes.
The ministry, however, received only $157 million of the total budget
“We are as a country sitting on a time bomb if we don’t treat the issue of youth empowerment as a priority considering that the youth are the pulse of our nation,” Machakaire said.
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“It is important to prioritise the youth since they constitute over 60% of the total population.
“We cannot keep quiet when the Treasury is suffocating the Youth ministry by failing to disburse funds for youth empowerment.”
Machakaire’s ministry requested ZiG2.7 billion for the 2025 budget, but was only allocated ZiG362 million which is less than 14%.
“It is not enough for the ministry to fulfill its mandate,” he said.
He said his ministry wanted adequate funding to resuscitate vocational training centres across the country as well as to undertake other youth centred programmes.
“We have a problem of drug and substance abuse in the country, and reviving vocational training centres is one such intervention to fight this scourge of drug abuse,” Machakaire said.
“However, we cannot do this without adequate funding from the Treasury.
“We require adequate infrastructure, funding to upgrade vocational training centres so that we upskill youth and take them away from drugs.”
Presently, there are 45 Vocational training centres in Zimbabwe, as well as 25 satellite stations.
It also emerged that the Empowerment ministry did not receive any funding from Treasury this year.
Ncube has said his 2025 budget will prioritise supporting the economy’s recovery as well as strengthening the local currency.