Young Mozambicans disappointed with employment policy

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Young Mozambicans disappointed with employment policy

2:20 CAT | 02 Mar 2017

Voa (File photo) / Government says youth unemployment is 30 percent, but rate may be higher

Young Mozambicans say the government’s projections about creating around 300 ,000 new jobs this year are unrealistic and over-optimistic.

In conversation with VOA, several young people have slammed the absence of an effective employment policy, especially for youth.

Mozambican Labour Minister Vitória Diogo said that the new jobs would be created under the government’s strategy to reduce unemployment and raise incomes in the country, especially through a focus on agriculture.

She said that if agriculture managed to raise incomes, it would mean that income and self-employed remuneration would also increase, “and this is how the country will fight poverty”.

“The issue of new jobs leads us to see that there is a lot more creativity emerging, with new entrepreneurs and new initiatives, and when we look at services, we also see that self-employment has increased,” she said.

But for Abdul Sulemane, this is not the result of any government employment policy, and it remained necessary to create opportunities “for the young to succeed”.

“I have heard these government projections and I think they are unrealistic. We do not have a youth employment policy in the country,” he said.

Orlando Francisco, another young man, says he does not know if he will ever get a job, “but I remember that creating jobs for youth was one of the promises made by President Filipe Nyusi during the election campaign”.

For his part, Policarpo Tamele believes that one of the solutions to the lack of employment is to give tools to Mozambican youth, “not in the sense of giving money, but by creating conditions for young people to access start-up funds”.

Mozambican authorities estimate the country’s unemployment rate at about 30 percent, but some disagree, saying the percentage is higher.

Source: Voa Portugues