SACCOs ready for $7.6m funding
GOVERMNENT has facilitated the formation of Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOs) in three major impoverished provinces in the country to ensure they benefit from the $7.6 million project funding from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
Small to Medium Enterprises Co-operative Development Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni, said the Opec fund for international development was meant to support poverty alleviation projects in communities.
Nyoni launched the fund recently whose beneficiaries will be drawn from Matabeleland North, Masvingo a n d and Manicaland provinces. “We have trained people on Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOs) in all the districts within the provinces. We are ready to receive funding and we are waiting for Opec to verify the projects that people intend to embark on before disbursement of the resources starts early next year,” said Minister Nyoni. It is hoped that each district in the three provinces will receive $285 000. Each of the three provinces has seven districts. SACCOs, income generating projects, livestock development ventures and those ventures seeking to optimise local e n d owment s such as fruit juice manufacturing, fish farming and small scale mining will be supported by OFID. The minister said Government recognizes the critical role played by the MSMEs and co-operatives in addressing issues of poverty reduction, j o b creation and income generation.
It is against this background that the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development has successfully lobbied for a $7.6 million Opec Fund for International Development (Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) loan.
“I don’t have the figures off hand on the total number of SACCOs that have so far been formed in the respective districts. But l am aware of over 27 SACCOs that have been established in Nkayi district alone,” said Minister Nyoni.
The fund also supports projects related to the setting up of entrepreneurial training institutes. Minister Nyoni said poverty was most widespread in Matabeleland North with 85 percent of the population in that province living in abject poverty. The OFID poverty alleviation project would be implemented over the next four years starting this year.
SACCOs will be supported with cash amounting to a maximum of $10 000 with a 10 percent interest rate per annum. Livestock development projects can access up to a maximum of $50 000 attracting an interest rate of 10 percent.
Entrepreneurs with projects aimed at optimising local resources endowment can also access up to a maximum of $50 000 at 10 percent per annum interest rate. The loan for all the projects that can be funded under the facility is payable over 12 months. — @ okazunga