Kitwe’s Patriotic Front (PF) Chimwemwe Member of Parliament Allen Banda has reiterated his resolve and commitment to developing Chimwemwe through collective efforts and unity.
Kitwe City Council on Tuesday handed over cheques amounting to K 705,000 to various cooperatives under the Chimwemwe Constituency for the 2nd, 3rd, and part of 4th quarter of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) empowerment grant for the year 2022.
Speaking at the handover ceremony held at the Kitwe Civic Centre, the Chimwemwe Constituency Member of Parliament asked the empowerment grant recipients to grow their businesses by pumping the profits raised from the grants back into the business.
The Chimwemwe lawmaker said the essence of the Constituency Development Grant is to change the livelihoods of people in the country.
Mr. Banda added that the issuance of the grants will be on a first come basis and that all applicants will be considered as long as they follow the guidelines and meet the criteria.
He further urged his constituents to speed up their applications so that they may stand a chance to benefit from the grants in the 2023 CDF allocation.
According to Kitwe City Council Public Relations Manager Mwaka Nakweti, as of 15th December 2022, council has disbursed empowerment grants to 748 cooperatives across the constituencies amounting to K6, 880,807.
With the additional 82 cooperatives from Chimwemwe Constituency, the cumulative number of cooperatives that have benefited from the grant stands at 830 which represent a total of K7, 594,807 of the CDF allocation for grants for the year 2022.
“We dedicated the past two weeks to facilitating the formation and registration of Cooperatives and clubs by the Eighteen (18) women groups in Chimwemwe Constituency. We ended our two-week tour of duty by financially assisting the seven women groups form and register cooperatives and clubs in Kamatipa Ward to enable them access funds from the Constituency Development Funds (CDF).This was in addition to the other eleven women groups we recently helped with funds to facilitate the formation and registration of their Cooperatives and Clubs in Kawama and Chimwemwe wards. We were accompanied by the Kamatipa Ward Development Committee (WDC) officials to witness the event. It is said that when you empower a woman, you have empowered the nation. It is against this background, that we will remain committed to supporting women groups in Chimwemwe and uplift the welfare of our residents. We further wish to reiterate our resolve and commitment to developing Chimwemwe through our collective efforts and unity in our Constituency. We will continue to assist the underprivileged in society to improve their lives. God Bless Chimwemwe and God Bless us all,” Mr. Banda said.
Speaking at the same handover ceremony, Kitwe City Council Town Clerk Mr. Patrick Kambita said as of 20th December 2022 the council has disbursed 80% of grants for Chimwemwe Constituency, 97% for Wusakile Constituency, Kwacha stands at 62%, while Kamfinsa Constituency grant disbursement stands at 60 and Nkana Stands at 74%.
Mr. Kambita said during the week the council will issue more cheques to cooperatives from other constituencies and that by the end of the month the disbursement of empowerment grants for the year 2022 is expected to reach 100% provided the cooperatives that have not satisfied the requirements for accessing grants do so.
He urged the recipients to spread the word as a means to encourage other community members to form cooperatives and share in the Government’s efforts to better the lives of its citizens.
The Town Clerk further added that come next year, the bottlenecks impeding the smooth release of CDF funds will be alleviated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Banda is engaging the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development over some families that wish to buy council houses they could not manage to acquire at the time they were being sold in Chimwemwe Constituency.
“It has come to our attention that there are some families in Chimwemwe who could not manage to buy Council houses they are currently occupying due to circumstances beyond their control. We have also learnt that these people failed to raise the funds before the deadline date as most of them were unemployed while others were young at the time these houses were being sold and their parents could not find the money to buy them. It is, however, gratifying that some of the affected families have approached my office with the view of helping them by convincing the council or ministry to consider selling them the same houses which they are currently renting from the council,” Mr. Banda said.
“I therefore, wish to assure these families and others who may be in the similar situation that as your servant I will surely engage all the relevant authorities charged with such matters and ensure that your requests are well attended to. We further encourage all those who are in the similar situation to visit our Constituency Office situated at Kamunga building and submit their matter to have it resolved collectively. We remain committed to resolving matters affecting our people in Chimwemwe Constituency as promised during our campaigns,” Mr. Banda said.
Well done Honorable member for Chimwemwe and the other constituencies. I would like to ask our Honorable Mps across all constituencies in the Country. What is happening with CDF loans. A number of sme’s applied for these loans and it appears the powers that be are not interested at all. Some of these loan applications were meant to be used in this 2022 to 2023 agriculture and farming season but the delay since June 2022 is causing a lot of concern. The PS local government is on record saying that the ministry had now identified the financial institutions to handle this component of CDF but nothing is happening. If there are constituencies that have started disbursing this component please let us know. Honorable Garry Nkhombo we can not all be lining up for grants some of us are…