Neef to disburse K6bn loans in two months

The National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) plans to disburse K6 billion in varied loans in the next two months to empower citizens to inject capital into their businesses.

Neef board chairperson Jephter Mtema revealed this in an interview on Friday on the sidelines of an awareness workshop with members of the Musician Union of Malawi.

He said that Neef has currently disbursed in excess of K29 billion with a target of K35 billion by the end of the financial year, meaning between now and March they will disburse about K6 billion.

Said Mtema: “So far, we have received over K15 billion from government which is additional capital.

“We expect to get additional capital in the coming financial year and our estimate is that if we get K20 billion, it will help us meet the demand that we currently have.”

In terms of loan recovery, they are at 60 percent, but their target is to reach 80 percent.

Musicians Union of Malawi president Gloria Manong’a said they are delighted that some of their members are poised to benefit from the Neef loans.

She said: “The musicians are economically vulnerable because of Covid-19 restrictions where a few number of people are able to attend musical shows, the restrictions have deprived artists of economic abilities”.

Ministry of Tourism Culture and Wildlife director of arts Humphreys Mpondaminga said most of the conventional financial institutions do not recognise artist’s products in terms of issuance of loans. In 2020, Neef was rebranded from the Malawi Enterprises Development Fund (Medef) with a mission to economically empower ordinary and under-served Malawians particularly women, youth, and persons with disabilities through the provision of quality, affordable and sustainable microfinance services for improved livelihoods.