National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) lakeshore zone manager Kelvin Posiyano has encouraged the youth in Salima District to get loans to start businesses.
Speaking on Saturday during an awareness meeting in Salima on Neef loans and operations, he said they engaged the youth to let them know how they can apply for loans.
“We want to encourage them to get loans as part of empowering the youth economically,” said Posiyano.
He, however, stressed that Salima was doing well on loans disbursement as they have given out about K6 billion in all the six constituencies.
“In terms of repayments, the district is poorly performing and there is need to do more. Currently, the collection rate is at 64 percent which does not conform with the national standard policy of 80 percent,” said Posiyano.
He expressed optimism that the collection rate might improve since people have just harvested their crops.
Salima Youth Empowerment Forum chairperson Maxwell Chisindo thanked Neef for the meeting, saying it will help the youth to push harder on their businesses.
“Youths are afraid to engage Neef on loans processing, but this meeting has highlighted everything we needed to know about loans disbursement and other products,” he said.
One of the participants, Asiyatu Chakwera said she did not know about the loan processing procedures.
During the meeting, it came to light that Rumphi, Mzimba and Kasungu districts have been outstanding on repayments, including the recent farm inputs loans.
