By Chimwemwe Mangazi:
The expression ‘back to square one’ sums up what has become of the once celebrated One Village One Product (Ovop) initiative with little or nothing to show from the initiative two decades since its rolling.
In 2003, the Malawi Government, under a line of credit from India, received about 265 pieces of machinery aimed at promoting community participation in value addition and small-scale processing activities.
The machinery was provided on loan attracting a 10 percent interest rate, payable over a three-year period.
The Times Business has established that to date, out of the 265 machinery pieces, 230 machines were disbursed. However, much of it is not operational.
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The Times Business has learnt that the government has embarked on an initiative to resuscitate the programme to enhance import substitution efforts while promoting production for export markets.
The Ministry of Trade conducted a machine verification exercise whose report indicates that there are 245 machines across the country, out of which 86 were disbursed under Ovop and 85 are operational.
This represents a 35 percent rate of operational machines across the country.
Director of Small and Medium Enterprises, Cooperatives and Value Addition in the Ministry of Trade Limbikani Kachiwaya said the government is working towards ensuring that the machinery is put to use.
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“Moving forward, we are looking at ensuring that production is well linked to a market as most machinery was provided to groups with no available market in the first place,” Kachiwaya said.
In an earlier interview, PIC Director Kondwani Kachamba Ngwira said the firm’s main role would be to train small and medium enterprises in cooking oil production, processing and product certification.
Kachamba said the second role would be to mobilise the SMEs into groups, which eventually form cooperatives.
It is expected that over 300,000 farmers will benefit from the project.
