Shabda Gyawali's Blog

" The government´s ongoing project, under which jobless youths are receiving unsecured credit, has faced a major roadblock after several banks and financial institutions said they cannot afford to continue giving away collateral-free loans, arguing that it could generate holes in their balance sheets." Click here to read more Should a private public partnership be initiated to inject equity in these small enterprises or should the Government lift the lend rate cap ?

Since the inception of the Youth Self-Employment Programme,"consultants" have charged development organizations thousands of dollars to conduct diagnosis and give a third party accreditation to the program. The glossy annual reports of various development organizations proudly claims that -Youth Self-Employment Programme is the solution to ignite entrepreneurial cultural and generate self employed jobs for the youths in the country. Despite of the lofty claims,the "real" performance of the program has been extremely unsatisfactory - " Although the government targeted to employ 50,000 individuals through the Youth Self-Employment Programme (YSEP) this fiscal year, the progress so far has been disappointing, with just 1,842 employed. " ( Kathmandu Post, Dec 20) SO what Sucks? What is not working ? " The fund has so far provided bulk loans worth Rs 330 million through 28 Banking and Financial Institutions and cooperatives out of its total app...

In 2009, the Government of Nepal (through the Ministry of Finance) launched the Youth and Small Enterprise Self-Employment Fund (YSESEF) Programme in order to provide the opportunity of self-employment to the unemployed youths and to small business people. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has been working in collaboration with the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), which has its local Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCIs) all over the country. The YSESEF Programme includes four steps: 1) Application and registration at CCIs 2) Participation in orientation training on small business and entrepreneurship (3 days) provided by CCIs 3) Application for a loan up to the maximum amount of Rs. 200,000 through banks and financial agencies 4) Utilisation of the loan for establishment of new small-scale businesses or strengthening of existing small-scale businesses The programme was widely advertised in the media. There has been record response to the programme from ...