Kavango East youth unemployment at 62.5%

Youth unemployment in Kavango East currently stands at a whopping 62.5%.

This was revealed by Kavango East governor Samuel Mbambo yesterday in his State of the Region Address (Sora) at Rundu.

“Kavango East Region has a high youth unemployment rate, which is the highest in the country, at 62.5%. This is according to the Namibia Statistics Agency Labour Force Survey for 2018,” Mbambo said.

He told the audience that during the period under review (2018/19), only 529 jobs were created in the region, of which 120 were permanent ones, while the rest were temporary.

Mbambo said his office is in the process of mobilising various stakeholders in the region to see how they can address the unemployment issue.

“The office of the regional governor is in the process of mobilising different stakeholders to come up with a regional strategy to address youth unemployment in the region,” he said.

Kavango East is one of the regions faced with massive poverty levels, which continue to grow.





Mbambo revealed that during the year under review about 30 000 vulnerable children in Kavango East were registered to benefit from various social grants, which is equivalent to just over N$69 million being spent by the child welfare ministry. About 74 marginalised households were also registered for social grants.

Mbambo further said that following the rollout of the food bank programme in the Rundu Urban constituency late last year, 813 beneficiaries were registered.

KENYA KAMBOWE