By Pemphero Malimba:
The Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (Medf) has, in five months, disbursed K8.9 billion in the form of loans.
However, statistics show low loans uptake by persons with disabilities and clients under the Reformed Constituency Development Fund (CDF) loan facility.
This is according to a presentation which Medf made before the Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs at Parliament Building in Lilongwe City Thursday.
The presentation shows that at least 210 clients with disabilities have accessed at least K66.5 million in the form of loans through a loan facility that has a minimum allocation of K256 million.
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The fund also says that only K400 million has been disbursed to over 660 clients under the CDF loans, which has a current K15 billion funding pool.
K2.3 billion has been disbursed to the youth, K2.9 billion to women.
According to the presentation, the fund has served at least 4833 direct clients with at least 14,625 jobs created as of September 11, 2026.
“… Some of them [challenges that Medf is facing] are political interference, lack of capacity to repay loans, fraud and dishonesty and delays in client application submissions,” Medf Client manager Monica Nkhonjera said during the presentation.
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It says the fund would sign a memorandum of understanding with the Malawi Council for Disability Affairs (Macoda) to promote information sharing among persons with disabilities.
Committee vice Chairperson Maureen Namwali said the committee would continue engaging the fund to ensure that more less privileged Malawians access the loans.
“Our expectation is that any underserved person has to access the loans to help them in their day to day lives,” Namwali said.
Medf was established in 2005 to economically empower Malawians through soft loans. The fund operates through 38 branches, 80 satellite offices and eight zonal offices across the country.
