New skills programme relevant

 THE rolling out of the “know about business” (KAB) programme is relevant in equipping young citizens with entrepreneurial skills, Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) acting managing director Henry Marasembi said.

He said during the Don Bosco Technological Institute graduation that other tertiary institutions should take up the programme.

“The main objective of this course is to create an enterprise culture and encourage students to consider self-employment a career part and to help young people develop business skills,” Marasembi said.

He said government intervention was needed to develop the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) sector.

“Creating more SMEs would contribute to our economic development and create employment, especially now that we are experiencing a high unemployment rate,” he said.

He said SME issues that needed government intervention were:

• Access to government funding through the National Development Bank, which has reduced its interest rates to 6.5%; and
• Entrepreneurial skills training provided by SBDC and other private sector institutions.