People always complain about how the younger generation lacks a sense of seriousness in its attitude to work and tend to behave with a degree of irresponsibility and carelessness.
They usually favor routine run of the mill public sector jobs that are physically and mentally non-demanding. This is in spite of the fact that these jobs don’t even pay well.
We should ask our youth to try and work in private businesses and also to try not to opt for simpleton lifelong jobs. Sometimes it is delightful to hear the success stories of budding young entrepreneurs who have worked hard in establishing their own businesses. Such people are definite role models for our younger generations.
Having said that, it should be noted that we don’t seem to really put much thought into helping and nurturing the younger generation by forwarding relevant help, advice and assistance to them to realize and achieve their dreams and desires.
One such example is that of a young go-getter called Al-Salam, who was aspiring to start his own business. He and his brother applied for a bank loan from the Saudi Credit Bank (SCB), which was established solely for the purpose of providing interest-free loans to Saudis who have limited financial resources. In turn the bank gave the brothers only one-third of the money the brothers had asked for. It also transpired that the SCB’s system was set in a way where clients would be provided with their loans on three separate installments.
Because of this Al-Salam and his brother had to stop their business project, which demanded the entire amount of money in one go for them to purchase equipment from Day 1. Al-Salam was left wondering why the SCB had to hinder the process of paying him the complete loan in its full amount especially since the bank had insurance in case the debt was defaulted on.
If the story of Al-Salam is true then we can only conclude that the situation is surely unfortunate. I am a strong believer that we need to encourage our young people to take up jobs in the private sector, and I also believe that this is the main reason why SCB was established in the very first place. But, nevertheless, such rules and regulations make it difficult for budding entrepreneurs.
Banks have their own systems in order for them to accomplish goals that they have set. Assuming these goals are there to help youth start their private businesses, then it would be much more efficient and easy for all if banks developed a much more flexible and easy approach.
