The government is to train all cooperative officers in the country on how to write project proposals so that they can in turn train youth groups in the country.
Deputy Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports Mr Juma Nkamia made the remarks when the Parliamentary Committee on Community Development toured youth groups in Temeke district who have benefited from the ministry's Youth Fund.
In 2014 the youth fund disbursed 17m/- to Temeke Municipality and under the Temeke Youth Saccos, money which was later loaned out to three youth groups.
The groups include Sokoine Youth Development which received 5m/- which has gone into horticulture farming in Kigamboni area, Waungwana Youth Family 5m/- that operate a hair cutting salon and music studio and African Legends Kigamboni who received 7m/- which was invested in a restaurant and an Information Communication Technology (ICT) company.
The purpose of the visit by the deputy minister and the community development committee was to inspect the Saccos and the youth groups that have benefited from the loans and their projects.
Mr Nkamia said the government felt that by training cooperative officers it would be easier for them to reach youth groups at the grassroots level and train them on how to write project proposals so that they can access loans from Saccos.
"We saw the need to train youths in writing good project proposals after noting that some of the project proposals are poorly written.
The training will also help youths access other loans once they are able to produce good written documents," he said. Chairman of the committee, Mr Said Mohamed Mtanda commended the groups for exhibiting such exemplary projects.
He particularly praised the African Legends Youth Group which is formed by four students, some of who have completed their studies and others still in colleges for embarking on such a project.
"This shows that even those in colleges and university can start a small income generating project while they plan how to improve their lives using the knowledge acquired," he said, adding that the idea of the groups to get into agriculture in the near future was commendable.
Earlier, the committee received a brief report on disbursement of funds meant for youths and women by the Temeke Municipality Community Development Officer, Mr John Bwana, detailed how they have been distributing the funds meant for youth groups, but gave little details on funds meant for women groups in the district.
Mr Mtanda directed the officials to prepare a detailed report on how funds from the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, meant for women and other sources have been disbursed.
He added that the report should, among other things, contain the number of youths and women groups in the district and how many have received loans so far.
Temeke Municipal Director Mr Photidas Kagimbo explained that they felt that the report should focus on the three youth groups that were being inspected by the committee, but promised that a full report would be prepared and handed over to the committee.
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