About 30 individuals attended a training on entrepreneurship skills, behavioral change and competency at the American Corner based inside the Juba University premises, February 11th 2022. |photo credit: Gak Malek.

A group of young entrepreneurs in Juba are encouraging youth in the country to engage in businesses and stop blaming the government over lack of job opportunities.

University graduates have often blamed the government for failing to provide job opportunities through the empowerment of the private sector.

The young entrepreneurs are now changing the narrative, arguing that youth are not doing enough to liberate themselves out of poverty.

Youth unemployment in South Sudan is said to be one of the biggest social problems facing young people.

Reports suggest that young people account for about 78% of the country’s population, yet they only account for 12 percent of the workforce.

This, according to observers, presents numerous challenges such as reduction in the absorption of young people in the labor market and retardation of the country’s economic growth.

Last week, small and medium scale business owners have called on young people to engage in businesses as the only way to fight poverty and dependency.

The business owners attended a five-day training on entrepreneurship skills, behavioral change and competency at the American Corner based inside the Juba University, last week.

The innovative training was facilitated by BEATec, a capacity building center for small businesses in Juba.

Some of the trainees who spoke to Eye Radio after the event believe the matter should inspire them to create jobs for themselves and be self-reliant.

Abuk Luka, a young lady in her mid-20s is one of the participants. She works as a marketer for a logistics company. She said the training has changed her mindset.

“This training has really given me an insight into entrepreneurship, I appreciate how we have been taught about behavioral impacts on entrepreneurship, so I have learnt a lot and appreciate what we have been given for those five days,” she said.

During the training, she was challenged to come up with a business idea and she thought about an internet connection device.

“I had this Wi-Fi device that I thought could connect like ten other devices. I said let me sacrifice myself and give the services to my colleagues, and it connects anything like a smartphone, laptop and smart TV, or anything. So I managed to give the services to my colleagues and I have actually made some money,” she said between laughs.

Abuk encourages the youth to stop blaming others for their misfortunes.

“I do encourage the youth out there to stop this culture of blame games. Don’t ever point a finger to people. We have actually learnt that in business, if you want to become an entrepreneur, don’t think about the limits,

“Just start from where you can, don’t even worry about the money. Come with an idea, be spontaneous, be creative, the money will come later and I assure you if you have the power, you can do whatever you want,” she said.

Diana Joseph Wani is a student and single mother with a physical disability.

Despite facing the challenges of discrimination, she said her condition has not stood in the way of her business ambition.

“Being a woman in South Sudan is a challenge. Now, on top of it, being a woman with disability is a double challenge and I face challenges with discrimination and you know there is that stereotype; that concept that people have towards those with disabilities. It is not just at the family level. Even in the business field, it is there,

“But one thing that I love so much about myself is that I am a good talker and I know how to convince and persuade someone to get attracted to me. I just tell people that yes, I am like this but my goods are not like that and they are like the goods of another person in the market,” said Diana.

She said venturing into business has helped her overcome a number of challenges.

“When I was just a girl before giving birth, I just lived my life because everything was taken care of for me. But when I got that baby, I had faced a lot of challenges. So I thought, now I am a mother and nobody is supporting me. What should I do? Then I started this field of entrepreneurship,” she said.

“I started baking cakes and I sell them, and you know because this baking business is kind of seasonal, it is active during Christmas and Easter seasons and I thought I was coming back to school now. How am I going to get back to school? So then I opened adobe and washed people’s clothes, I iron them and they come and take at the end of the day, and I get money,

“So I do a lot of businesses as of now, I do this business of selling honey. I send money to Mundri, they send me honey. I pack the honey and distribute it to people in offices. This is the business I am doing,” she added.

She also says she will now think beyond just getting money to cater for her son and school fees.

“I am going to take the concept of commitment because I have not been so much committed despite that my business is giving me money. Because I just have that idea of getting money for my studies and to cater for my son, but now I have come to know like I should this beyond what I am getting,

“Yes my business is going, but that’s not enough. I have to exceed that, I have also been told about money loaned in the bank. I am also going to try that. I have other plans as well to bring about 500 bags of charcoal, of which that is a lot of money.”

Last year, the minister of information described some youth in the country as lazy.

Michael Makuei appealed to the youth to look for private-sector jobs rather than waiting for government institutions to employ them.

He claimed that young people in the country avoid work because of laziness.

“What you will be getting in the market -doing manual work, using your muscles, will bring you more money than any other person, even better than me. The salary that is given to you by the government per month, you can get it per day in the private sector,” Minister Makuei asserted.

For his part, Madong Majuech, an aspiring businessman who is also a student at the University of Juba says some people point fingers for their failure in business.

“For us, we usually use blame games and that if you have failed, you fail because of someone but you have not assessed yourself, how did you fail? Like when someone fails in business, they may blame the government or someone, so people blame failures on witchcraft. But definitely as an entrepreneur, you must have a policy or plan to resist unforeseen circumstances,” he argued.

He also appeals to unemployed people to do businesses instead of sitting idly under trees.

“What I can tell them is to leave sitting under trees or politics because politics wouldn’t help. They have to get to practical work and that is the one that can help them. If you are educated, at least you have to make a business proposal, try as much as you can to get some funds. You knock on every door,” said Majuech.

Gak Malek is the founder of BEATec, an incubation hub of small and medium scale business enterprises.

Founded in 2018, he said the main objective of his company is to empower the private sector.

“We want the private sector to prevail, we want the private sector to improve and we want more people to be employed. We want more people to engage in business because NGOs and governments cannot employ all of us. But the private sector can take all of us. So this is another way that we are encouraging young people to venture into the private sector instead of having blame games,” Malek stated.

South Sudan suffers from structural unemployment, wherein youth possess skills that are not in demand.

Additionally, rampant corruption within government institutions has also been a driving factor for young people to shy away from certain jobs.

Reports also suggest that cultural dynamics prevents some youth from taking up jobs such as cleaning and carpentry and others.