World Bank to provide US$2 million for youth entrepreneurship in Mozambique

The World Bank will make US$2 million available this year to support entrepreneurship programmes for more than 70,000 young Mozambicans, the Government announced on Friday. “Regarding entrepreneurship, as a Government we have already begun working to launch grant competitions for young people. This year, more than 70,000 young people will receive grants to continue their entrepreneurial activities,” said the Minister of Youth and Sport, Caifadine Manasse.

According to the minister, the fund will be made available by the World Bank under a programme that also includes technical training for beneficiaries. “The amount available to the Government, we are working with the World Bank, we are dealing with figures of approximately over US$2 million, and this amount covers the entire project, which is to ensure that this funding reaches young people and also includes their training, because they must be equipped to receive these grants,” Manasse stated. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the meeting of the Interministerial Council for Youth Affairs, a multi-sector body chaired by Mozambique’s Prime Minister, Maria Benvinda Levi, which approved the 2026 activity plan and the 2025 implementation report.

The document will be submitted to the Assembly of the Republic at the beginning of March. During the session, the Prime Minister argued that access to financing must be accompanied by adequate training, warning of the need to make better use of the resources made available. “We are aware that, more than having financial resources, it is necessary to know how to use them correctly in order to respond to our needs, but also to our future projects,” said Maria Benvinda Levi, advocating the strengthening of business incubators as a training instrument, including in youth tourism.

[paywall]

The Prime Minister added that the focus on entrepreneurship is a response to the limited availability of formal employment, but cautioned that the success of such initiatives depends on consistent technical training rather than goodwill alone. “For this, basic training is required, not merely goodwill or amateurism, as is currently the case,” she said, also pointing to housing as one of the main challenges affecting Mozambican youth.

[/paywall]