Changunarayan Municipality has implemented the ‘Entrepreneurship Program with the Mayor’ targeting the youths who have lost their jobs due to the epidemic of Corona Virus Covid-19 and are unemployed within the municipality.
With the objective of making unemployed youth self-employed at the local level and ending the situation of having to go abroad, the municipality has implemented the ‘Entrepreneurship Program with Mayor’ passed by the 7th Municipal Council to provide an interest-free loan of Rs. 300,000 to unemployed youth from today.
Mayor Somprasad Mishra said, “The municipality has launched this program with the objective of making local youth and unemployed youth who have returned from abroad due to corona self-employment based on tourism and agriculture. This is the first program at the local level in Nepal.” The aim is to promote the enterprise sector.
This year, 900 youths will be made entrepreneurs by providing No Interest Loans (NILS) and the interest to be paid in the bank will be paid by the municipality. According to Mishra, for the time being, the municipality will bear the interest of the loan taken by the youth by depositing Rs 30 million in the bank and the bank will provide loans to the youth without collateral. The borrower will have to repay the loan within the next five years. The loan can be repaid in five years even if the installment is paid at the rate of Rs. 5,000 per month.
Agni Prasad Adhikari, chief administrative officer of the municipality, said that the youths who have recently lost their jobs due to the coronavirus can become entrepreneurs at the local level. He said that the municipality has formulated and implemented separate procedures for this.
The agreement was signed by Mayor Mishra and CEO of Nepal Bank Limited Krishna Bahadur Adhikari in the presence of Deputy Chief Bina Bastola, Chief Administrative Officer and Ward Chairman of Ward No. 3 Shyam Sundar Dhimal, said Siddhanta Neupane, Information Officer of the Municipality. He said that the bank would provide loans to the selected candidates as per the agreement and the municipality would pay the interest on the loan.
Neupane informed that an agreement has been reached between the municipality and the bank for the implementation of both the ‘Entrepreneurship Program with the Mayor’ and ‘Savings Account Daughter, Security for Life’ programs. The municipality has also implemented the ‘Savings Account for Daughter, Security for Life’ program. Mayor Mishra said that the program was implemented with the objective of discouraging child marriage by supporting the education of local girls studying in all the community schools of Changunarayan and building a secure future.
For this, Nepal Bank Limited is going to open a personal account for the students who have studied from class 1. The bank will open a free account for the girl student and deposit Rs. 100 in the account. Mayor Mishra said, “The municipality will deposit Rs 4,000 in a student’s account every year.” The money deposited in the account will be withdrawn from the community school only after passing the secondary level i.e. class 12. While we believe that this program will reduce the number of child marriages and school dropouts in the city, we hope that it will further increase the attraction towards community schools.
According to Mayor Mishra, the program will allow students to study at least up to class 12, not get married 20 years ago. If a student does not have enough money to study higher education after class 12, she will be able to study higher education with this money. If the money is not used for the study, it is expected to help run a small business. This year, an account will be opened in the name of 1,200 female students studying in community schools here and the deposit will be started.
The chief administrative officer of the municipality said that the students will not be able to withdraw the amount including interest deposited in their account until they reach the age of 20. Students will not receive this amount if they leave school before class 12 and get married 20 years ago. In that case, the money will be returned to the municipality. If there is a financial problem in class 11 and 12 studies after SEE, the money will be withdrawn on the condition of not getting married 20 years ago.
