Government commits K11.9 billion to household economic projects
By Samuel Kalimira:
The government, through the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, has committed K11.9 billion to eleven non-governmental organisations to support implementation of Financial Access for Rural Markets Smallholder and Enterprises (Farmse) programme to be carried out in all the districts of country.
The organisations have partnered Farmse to implement 12 projects that aim at supporting household economic development through access to financial services.
Speaking after orienting journalists from the Northern Region on the projects, Farmse Programmes Coordinator, Dixon Ngwende, said the project would improve peoples’ living standards.
The other aspects are to provide support to value chains that fuel economic opportunities for smallholder rural enterprises as well as strengthening the institutional framework for rural microfinance.
“One activity which we are looking at is graduation of ultra-poor households and we have targeted 15,000 households. These are households that have been depending on cash transfer support and we want to empower them to stand on their own economically,” Ngwende said.
He said the partners would use financial cooperatives, commercial banks and community-based financial organisations to empower community members.
Some of the beneficiaries are Care International, Save the Children International, World Relief, Comsip and Oxfam.
A total of 432,774 households have been earmarked to benefit from the $57.7 million project.
Project implementation started in July 2018 and ends in July 2025, thanks to funds from the government, International Fund of Agriculture Development and the private sector.
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