Staff Reporter
Youths in Bulawayo and Matabeleland North yesterday received 120 heifers under the Presidential Heifer Pass-on Scheme which is set to improve livestock production in the country as well as economically empower the youths.
Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Richard Moyo and Judith Ncube presided over the event.
Speaking during the launch, Minister Moyo thanked President Emmerson Mnangagwa for donating the heifers, urging the youths to embrace empowerment programmes being introduced by Government.
“It is my singular honor to officiate at this function where I hand over 70 heifers for Matabeleland North and 50 heifers for Bulawayo province donated by President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, President Mnangagwa to the youths in Matabeleland North and Bulawayo provinces.
“This is indeed a momentous occasion as it is evidence that the Second Republic is aware of the important role that youths can play in our development. The President has always emphasized that no one and no place will be left behind in development and today we are witnessing it,” he said.
The Minister highlighted that the heifers were not only being donated to the youths in the two provinces but to youths in various provinces throughout the country. He appealed to the youths to embrace various empowerment programmes offered in the skill development centre and desist from engaging in illicit drugs that are a threat to their future.
The idea of the scheme is that once the heifers give birth, the offspring will be passed on to other youths as the scheme cascades to the grassroots.
Minister Moyo said the National Development Strategy (NDS1) envisages to increase the number of youths accessing empowerment opportunities in all sectors of the economy from 16 000 in 2020 to 200 000 by 2025.
While receiving the heifers, Zanu-PF Youth League Secretary for Transport and Welfare, Cde Elizabeth Masuku, who is also Matabeleland North Proportional Representative legislator, thanked President Mnangagwa for his support for the youths, promising to keep the heifers safe so that the scheme cascades to grassroots.
The 120 heifers given to the youths yesterday are being kept on quarantine at Ngcwabeni Centre in Tsholotsho as a health precaution to prevent possible spread of diseases when livestock is moved from one province to the other, before they can be taken to farms that will be identified for each of the two provinces.
The Presidential Heifer Pass-on Scheme seeks to restore and guarantee household food security and nutrition to vulnerable members of the society especially those who lost entire herds of cattle to the dreaded January disease which affected the country few years ago.
