10 youth who competed for a business plan competition in Torit State were on Tuesday awarded certificates as the first step before they could start their own businesses.
About 97 participants presented their plans.
SPARK, CORDAID and Rural Finance Initiative (RUFI) supported the competition seeking to empower youth in agro-business processing.
Justine Taban Juma, one of the winners of the business plan competition, hailed the partners for initiating programs that empower young people.
“On behalf of the participants, I want to give thanks to the partners who came with this initiative because formerly, we the youth had no skills in business management and no idea on innovation and creativity in our life. We were basing on job seeking, not job creation, but when we received training, we were elevated to the next level,” Taban said.
He urged partners to provide alternatives for the youth who failed.
On his part, Ating Benson Charles, the business support officer at SPARK, said the project would run for five years. He added that they will offer chances for those who failed to try again in the next round of the competition.
Similar programs, he said, are running in Bor and Yambio towns to equip the young people with business skills. He pointed out that the competition was officially launched on May 17 in Torit town.
He said the 10 successful candidates were selected based on their business plans and would be given loans to run their own businesses.
Ating did not, however, disclose how much each youth will be given.
Meanwhile, the state information and youth minister, Margret Idwa Okuye urged the winners not to misuse the loans. She advised them to use the money according to their business plans.
“This money is not for free, you have to work extra miles to return this money then it will be like a revolving fund to continue empowering others,” Idwa said.