The National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) has said it has so far disbursed K70.9 billion in loans as at the end of July 2023.
Neef Chief Executive Officer Humphrey Mdyetseni told Times Radio’s ‘Kutakata ndi Mpamba wa Neef’ on Tuesday that of the K70.9 billion, about K17 billion has been disbursed in the Northern Region, K30 billion has gone to the Central Region and K24 billion has gone to the Southern Region.
He said in terms of loan repayment, the Northern Region is at 78 percent, Centre at almost 60 percent and the South is at 71 percent.
According to Mdyetseni, in the four months from April to July, Neef disbursed K12 billion, which is an improvement from the K8 billion disbursements during the same period last year.
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Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) Associate Professor of Economics Betchani Tchereni, while applauding Neef for the progress made so far, underscored the need for the institution to align loan disbursements to the industrialisation pillar of the Malawi2063.
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“Neef has done the ticking of the boxes, thus disbursing loans but, really, we could do better. Most of the loans have been disbursed towards trading businesses, which does not speak well to the MW63 pillar of industrialisation.
“It should have been that our ambitions should have been seen through Neef disbursements. Through Neef, we needed to force groups to start manufacturing operations,” Tchereni said.
Neef replaced the Malawi Enterprise Development Fund Limited (Medf) that was registered under the Company’s Act as a company that is limited by guarantee in 2014.
Medf was the successor of the Malawi Rural Development Enterprise Fund (Mardef) which was established by the Government of the Republic of Malawi with the approval of Parliament.
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Mardef was launched by presidential decree on January 29, 2005. Thereafter, the Malawi Parliament passed a resolution to set up Mardef on April 11 2005 where it was envisaged that Mardef would eventually be established by either an Act of Parliament or under the Companies Act as a company limited by guarantee in the year 2014.
As a result of this, Medf was formed and inherited the assets and liabilities of Mardef the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the Farm Inputs Loan programme (Filp) that were implemented from 2012 to 2014.
