Chinsali Municipal Council says it has exhausted the entire 2022 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to 101 beneficiaries under youth and women empowerment grants.
Chinsali municipal council Director planning and development Biggie Chanda says so far among the beneficiary cooperatives are mostly women and youth owned from the 12 wards.
Mr Chanda in an interview on Friday explained that those applications that were not funded this year would be considered in 2023.
“I am happy that we have managed to reach the targets of empowering the cooperatives that had applied for funds under 2022 CDF,” He said.
Mr Chanda further disclosed that Chinsali received K25,700,000 out of which K4,883,000 went towards youth and women empowerments translating to 40 percent.
He added that the local authority also approved 97 applications under bursaries for pupils and 100 for college students costing K2,929,800 as it’s 20 percent.
“ Soft loan empowerment is underway as the CDF committee will be scrutinising the applications for applicants for possible funding adding that 2,766,500 will go towards funding soft loans of various businesses, “ he explained.
And Chinsali District Commissioner Samson Muchemwa says government will continue supporting entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment level among youths.
Mr Muchemwa says the new dawn government mean well to the people of Chinsali adding that everyone has the right to apply for financial support under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
He hopes that those who have not benefited in 2022 will be given priority in 2023 for possible funding.
The government has increased CDF from K25.7 million to K28.3 million in 2023 with an objective to empower the grassroots to venture into small and medium Enterprising.
Meanwhile,Kitwe City Council has issued another 172 cheques for beneficiaries in Nkana, Wusakile and Kamfinsa constituencies, respectively barely a week after disbursing over K700 , 000 worth of the CDF empowerment grants for Chimwemwe constituency.
And Kitwe Town Clerk Patrick Kambita says the council targets to disburse all the district’s 2022 allocation of the CDF grants funds by
end of December.
Speaking during the handover of the cheques to beneficiaries in Kitwe on Friday, Mr. Kambita said after the issuance of the cheques today, Nkana will stand at 85 per cent, Wusakile at 98 per cent and Kamfinsa will be at 87 per cent with the balance expected to be cleared next week.
“We expect to finish the disbursement of cheques for empowerment grants by next week and after that we will be looking at community projects which have their own challenges but l can assure you that most of the bottlenecks in this process have been addressed and come next year the process will be running smoothly,” he said.
Some of the addressed bottlenecks entails that some community projects will be approved at the provincial level instead of
Lusaka as is the case now.
Mr. Kambita who described 2022 as a learning year in the disbursement of CDF said there will be no excuse for council officers to delay CDF funded community projects next since most bottlenecks to the process have been addressed.
And Kitwe Mayor Mwaya Mpasa urged the beneficiaries to use the funds for projects that they applied for so as to improve their livelihoods economically.
And Nkana Member of parliament Binwell Mpundu said CDF had no impact on the ground because the money is being given out in small amounts.
“CDF is a good very programme that can bring the development we desire in communities, but there is still need to further address the
bottlenecks that are still preventing the smooth running of the programme, and to the CDF chairpersons, you are giving little money to
people, give them bigger amounts that will have an impact on the ground, currently CDF has no impact on the ground because people are
being give small amounts which they end up consuming instead of investing,” he said.
The lawmaker appealed to government to increase the funds given to cooperatives so that the beneficiaries can carry out bigger projects that would have significant impact on the ground.
And Kamfinsa member of Parliament Christopher Kang’ombe commended the government for increasing the Constituency Development Funds to 28
million.
Mr. Kang’ombe said this will ensure undertaking of big development projects and improvement of the people’s wellbeing.
He urged beneficiaries in his constituency to invest the money in the various projects and grow the funds.
And his Wusakile Constituency counterpart, Pavwuma Kalobo urged beneficiaries to use the money prudently and improve their livelihoods.
The money was not a political fund and was available for everyone regardless of their political affiliation, he said .
Kitwe Council is expected to conclude the disbursement of the 2022 CDF empowerment grants by December 30.
How about an audit in the name of transparency
Councils are well known for their miss spending
I agree
The Auditor General and ACC should have something to do, unleash your most corrupt auditors to go and catch those who bought TVs and got drunk from CDF.
When it comes to money our friend in the North are very slippery…what is it that Chinsali is doing that others are not; who are struggling to use up CDF? This needs a thorough investigations especially that soft loan empowerment cross check it with District commitee members’ bank accounts.
Thats very commendable.
Its unfortunate that some PF MP’s are still complaining about how to use the CDF funds.
Please consult your colleagues.
You still have k25.7 million x 4 years (K100 million ) left to spend in respective constituencies.
This is a huge win for HH and the UPND.
This is good. But let’s also consider giving men. They are on need also