Eswatini: Youth entrepreneurship as the key to national renewal
In the Kingdom of Eswatini, youth unemployment remains one of the most pressing challenges, and King Mswati III wants to make it a priority. By calling for a review and strengthening of the Youth Fund, he highlights the need to create sustainable livelihoods for a generation that is still too often excluded from the labor market.
The situation is worrying. Available data show that youth unemployment remains very high, especially in rural areas, where economic opportunities are limited. For the sovereign, this reality can no longer be treated as a simple social difficulty: it is a national issue, directly linked to the stability, social cohesion and future of the country.
The strengthening of the Youth Fund is therefore part of a broader approach to action. The idea is to give young people not only access to financing, but also concrete support to launch income-generating activities. This is in line with the efforts already underway around funds such as the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund, which supports entrepreneurship among 18–35-year-olds and promotes access to start-up capital.
The king also insists on the need for an in-depth review of the system. For him, a youth fund should not be a symbolic mechanism: it must become an effective tool for economic transformation. Training, mentoring, financing, innovation and professional integration must be articulated to produce sustainable results.
This orientation is particularly important after four decades of rule, during which youth unemployment remained at the center of national concern. By acknowledging that this problem remains the most urgent, Mswati III shows that the issue of youth is no longer secondary, but at the heart of the kingdom’s development strategy.
The challenge is clear: to make young people a productive force rather than a generation in waiting. By strengthening the Youth Fund, the Sovereign wants to encourage entrepreneurship, support the economic autonomy of young people and lay the foundations for a more inclusive prosperity for Eswatini.
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