Mudi Sacco manager receives global scholarship

Blantyre-based Mudi Sacco’s general manager is one of the recipients of the 2014 Global Women’s Leadership Network scholarships.

Mudi Sacco general manager Triza Tsiga Magreta and five other women from Azerbaijan, Kenya, Liberia, Thailand and US have been awarded the scholarship which promotes emerging women credit union leaders, according to a press statement.

The scholarship will provide them with access to a network of credit union professional expertise, said the statement, adding that the scholarship recipients will join nearly 100 women from 13 countries for the sixth annual Global Women’s Leadership Forum and the World Credit Union Conference in Gold Coast, Australia in July this year.

According to the statement, Magreta designed a programme to increase her credit union’s ability to serve women in the community which included financial literacy training and savings mobilisation with a special group-lending model to strengthen economic capacities while enabling women to develop their leadership skills.

The statement has quoted Magreta as having said that when women are financially empowered, they are in a better position to allocate resources that solve family challenges, leading to improved family well-being. n

Embrace cooperatives, Comsip urges govt

Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Cosmip) cooperative union has urged the new government to embrace the cooperative movement, saying it has potential to turn around Malawi’s economy and save it from overdependence on subsidies.

The union’s business development specialist, Harold Dunga, said on Friday in Lilongwe that although there is evidence that Comsip cooperative movement is transforming lives of rural Malawians through savings and wealth creation, little has been done by government to ensure the movement reaches and benefits more people.

“We urge the next government to embrace the cooperative movement.Poverty reduction is possible through this avenue,” he said.

In the 2013/2014 fiscal year, government spent about K60 billion for the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) which, according to Comsip, benefits only a few people.

The union believes that such money if directed to the movement can leave more lasting impact to beneficiaries than does subsidy.

Dunga, however, expressed gratitude that some ministries have already started appreciating the potential of the cooperative movement in transforming the country’s economy through wealth creation for the rural poor.

He cited Ministry of Industry and Trade which he said has been working hand in hand with the union in training member cooperatives and finding markets for their agricultural produce.

According to Dunga, Comsip cooperative union has a membership of over 120 people with an estimated savings of over K1.3 billion with the vision to grow into one of the biggest secondary

cooperatives that have influence on the economy.

Last week, the union organised a week-long cooperative member education training for members of newlyformed Kangamowa Cooperative of Nkhoma in Lilongwe.

The training was aimed at ensuring that members of the new cooperative are knowledgeable on how a cooperative society operates before being registered.