Over 80 per cent of loans obtained from Youth Development Fund in 2012 have not been paid back.

Over 80 per cent of loans acquired from the YDF Youth Development Fund since 2012, are still owed to the Department of Youth in Eastern Province.
Speaking during a Budget Tracking programme on Breeze FM, acting Provincial Coordinator, Trywell Moonga, explained that in 2012, 631, 229 Kwacha was paid out, but that only 13 percent of the money has been recovered.
Mr. Moonga added that under the 2014 funding, only ten of the 66 youths who acquired loans have started paying back.
He admitted that the ministry is facing serious challenges in recovering the loans and that this necessitated them to engage stakeholders at district levels to help sensitise the youths on the need to pay back.
Meanwhile, the department has been accused of being incompetent in effectively implementing the youth fund.
One of the callers challenged the department to consider engaging entrepreneurial minds on implementation of the youth fund, so that loans can be recovered.
And the employment freeze has affected the skills training programme being run in conjunction with the ZNS, Zambia National Service at Chiwoko.
Mr. Moonga says that enrolments are currently on hold until the lifting of the wage and employment freeze is put into effect.
He says that the department was able to receive all its funding of 1.2 million Kwacha for 2014 which was utilised for administrative purposes, events as well as skills training purposes for youths.
Meanwhile government has been allocated 2.3 million Kwacha of YDF, Youth Development under the 2015 national budget.
Acting Provincial Youth Development Officer, Trywell Moonga says that this is out of 29 million Kwacha allocated to the whole country.
Mr. Moonga however, could not state when this money will be released to Eastern Province.
He further indicated that 86 youth groups have applied for the loans and grants but that selection has not yet been done.
Mr. Moonga stated that 50 per cent of the applications were from youths in rural districts of the province.
He however, revealed that some youths in Chipata where deliberately applying from other districts like Sinda to increase their chances of benefiting from the fund.
Mr. Moonga says that this is wrong because youths based in these rural districts were being deprived of an opportunity to benefit from the money.