TAKE-AWAYS FROM PRESIDENT HAKAINDE HICHILEMA ADDRESS AT THE OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 2025 YOUTH INDABA AT MULUNGUSHI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN LUSAKA
ADDRESS:
You the youths in the previous indaba asked us to do something for you and this is how we have responded to the task you gave us after ekected us into office:
1. We have recruited thousands of teachers to address the issue of teacher-pupil ratio and that was just the beginning as we have recruited more ;
2. We have created an online youth portal under the ministry of youth , sports and art , to allow youths to access opportunities in both private and public sectors and any other vital information ;
3. We have allocated more resources towards sports than ever before to support the growth of all types of sports as all sport is important;
4. We linked youths to a Scholarship Conference in Uganda for Young entrepreneurs last year;
5. Over 200,000 youths have graduated through vocational training or skills training for free under the CDF initiative across the country;
6. Over 2 million pupils have gone back to school due to the free education we introduced;
7. Even if global politics have changed, we shall ensure that free education and other social justice opportunities continue;
8. Out of the drought we experienced , we found opportunities in irrigation agriculture, setting up solar panels so that in future when we have a drought, with or without rains , we shall have food ;
9. I have given instruction to Minister of SMEs to increase allocation under CEEC for youth empowerment to K397million – note that when we took over leadership , it was at K41million .
– what is not working in the execution is being addressed and we are bringing banks on board so thag we create efficiency in accessing funds ;
– we have increased the length of repayment period so that our youths can better manage their businesses;
– we will come back to you to explain how this systems
will work;
10. We have recruited over 17,000 health workers because we want to address the health worker – patient ratios ; and this is an ongoing initiative;
11.We have reinstated students meal allowances as we promised you during the elections and have extended them to all public universities;
12. We have over 1.1 million beneficiaries under the agriculture support programme because we want to make youths also find opportunities in producing ;
13. We want to change the attitude of citizens towards personal investment;
14. Youths and women asked for inclusion in the governance system and we shall do that to ensure we have many youths and women in parliament by constitutional amendment;
15. President also called on the youth to avoid abusing social media but instead use the internet to bring positive change .
In conclusion , President Hichilema opted to sit in and interact with youths in a random open discussion based on question and answer.
This is the President who is able to take questions randomly without censorship of those asking.
UPND Media Team .