VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) has handed confirmation letters to 11 young entrepreneurs under its flagship Local Grant Scheme, an annual seed-funding programme that the Ministry of Finance administers on its behalf to help people aged 18 to 30 turn business ideas into operating small enterprises.
The official letters were handed over by Betty Barra, assistant programme officer at the SNYC, in the presence of the council’s chief executive, Michel Raymond Pierre, and other SNYC staff, who congratulated the recipients in person on the awards. The grant confirmation letters bring the funded intake to 11 young entrepreneurs, in line with the council’s three-year average.
Under the scheme’s published rules, individual grants are capped at SCR 100,000, with a national approved budget of SCR 1 million for the 2026 financial year. Because not every applicant takes the full maximum, the council has been able, for the third year running, to stretch the fund across one more recipient than the published per-applicant cap would suggest, allowing an extra young person to benefit from the scheme each cycle.
Josette Canaya and Assad Labonte are among the recipients handed letters this year. The grantees span the range of small-business ideas typical of the scheme, from hairdressing and cake making to baking and other service-sector micro-businesses.
The Local Grant Scheme is one of the SNYC’s main tools for encouraging young people to set up their own enterprises, in line with a policy objective of fostering entrepreneurship skills, providing financial assistance and creating opportunities for economic growth, as set out on the Ministry of Finance’s Financial Schemes page. It is administered by the SNYC on behalf of the Ministry of Employment and Human Resource Planning.
Applicants typically complete a week-long training programme overseen by a Seychellois business mentor ahead of a pitch to a panel, with the panel itself deciding the final amount each successful applicant receives, rather than a fixed award. Once grants are confirmed, the funds are paid out to suppliers of equipment and stock rather than directly to the grantees, and the SNYC follows up with the new business owners in person to verify the company is operational within a contracted timeframe.
The Seychelles National Youth Council was set up under a long-standing national youth policy framework designed to widen the participation of young Seychellois in the country’s social, civic and economic life. Mr Pierre was appointed chief executive with effect from 1 January 2026 following a presidential announcement.
The handover comes against a wider Cabinet-approved reform of the broader Seed Capital Grant Scheme (SCGS), designed to strengthen start-up and entrepreneurship support, on which the SNYC scheme sits. The reform, announced earlier this year, tightens definitions for youth beneficiaries, addresses repeated applications by previous recipients, adds flexibility to the evaluation process and allows for an extension of approved project timelines in justified cases.
The grantees will now move into the supplier-payment phase, with the SNYC indicating that the Local Grant Scheme will run again during the next financial cycle.
Sources cited: Seychelles Ministry of Finance — Financial Schemes: SNYC Local Grant Scheme; Seychelles National Youth Council — Local Grant 2026 announcement on Facebook; State House Seychelles — Appointment of the Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles National Youth Council; State House Seychelles — Cabinet Business 13 May 2026 (Seed Capital Grant Scheme reforms).
