Ultra-poor households get K1 billion boost

Ministry of Finance has challenged ultra-poor households to develop a saving culture and aim at graduating from reliance on social support.

The ministry’s director of pensions and financial sector policy division Davie Wirima said this last week in Phalombe during the launch of K1 billion seed capital disbursement for ultra-poor households.

The money will be disbursed under the Building Sustainable Livelihoods for Ultra-Poor project being implemented by the Community Savings and Investments Promotion (Comsip) Cooperative Union Limited with technical and financial support from the Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise (Farmse).

About 4 250 households, out of which 3 041 fare emale-headed households from Phalombe and Mulanje, will benefit from the fund to boost their small-scale businesses.

Said Wirima: “The seed capital grants to the ultra-poor households’ beneficiaries will jump-start one or more economic activities among the beneficiaries and in the long-run transition them into improved and more resilient livelihoods.”

He urged the beneficiaries to invest their seed capital wisely and that their preferred income-generating activity should match their skills and knowledge.

On his part, Farmse national programme coordinator Dixon Ngwende said the programme takes graduation pathways as means of empowering the poor.

He said: “With the knowledge and skills imparted to the beneficiaries by Comsip, it is obvious that they will benefit from the money that will be given to them as capital.”

Comsip chief executive officer Tenneson Gondwe said the beneficiaries will use the capital to enhance their existing and new businesses.

One of the beneficiaries, Febby Machaka from Bwanaissa Village in Traditional Authority Mkhumba in Phalombe, said she will use the money to boost her  business.