Women urged to take bank loans
WOMEN from Matabeleland should be keen to take loans and invest in their small-scale businesses as means to end socio-economic challenges in the region which include gender based violence, child marriages and teenage pregnancies.
Speaking during the launch of the Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank (ZWMB) assets in Umzingwane district yesterday, Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni commended the women for being creative in coming up with income generating projects.
She said it was important for them to make use of the $25 million which President Mnangagwa recently launched to resuscitate SMEs through ZWMB following Covid-19 disruptions.
The main economic activities being supported include detergent making (sanitisers and soap), in response to Covid-19 and beyond, bread making, tailoring, sewing of masks, non-disposable sanitary pads, school uniforms, personal protective clothing, peanut butter making, maputi production, market gardening, grinding of maize meal and stock feed among others.
Minister Nyoni said the women from the region should equally benefit from the project so that they boost their businesses and also access the machinery that the bank is loaning to grow their businesses.
“I am happy to be launching this project in Umzingwane and it is necessary that I remind women from this region to rise and take an active interest in accessing loans that the Government has availed to them through the ZWMB. This project will help foster development and solve some social issues we have like the food insecurity affecting most of our communities,” said Min Nyoni.
“It is a pleasure to launch the disbursement of assets and working capital under the Government of Zimbabwe and the European Union funded Spotlight Initiative and Women Economic Empowerment being implemented by the UNDP in partnership with my ministry and the women’s bank.”
Minister Nyoni added that many vulnerable women were missing out and lagging behind in the project tailor-made to address all their economic and social needs.
“The Spotlight Initiative pays particular attention to women and girls who are marginalised, isolated and prone to sexual and gender-based violence, harmful practices, and sexual and reproductive health rights issues. The need for access to means of production, ownership of assets and working capital among women and girls is one of the identified challenges for women economic empowerment resulting in their exclusion from active participation in the mainstream economic activities.”
ZWMB chief executive officer Dr Mandas Marikanda said the nationwide programme would also be launched in other provinces as it sought to ensure Zimbabwean women are well equipped to contribute to economic revival.
“We cannot continue leaving the country in search for greener pastures when we can use our brilliant ideas and these loans to improve our livelihoods. I believe women from Umzingwane and Zimbabwe at large can make use of these initiatives and produce food for eating and resale because having economically independent women is a guarantee to reduced child marriages, teen pregnancies and lesser gender-based violence cases in the community,” said Dr Marikanda.
One of the beneficiaries, Ms Talent Khupe, said she had always dreamt of an incubator to boost her chicken project.
“I am pleased that for the first time we will stop travelling to Bulawayo and other areas seeking incubators and these machines that the bank is willing to help us acquire. I can now breed chicks for resale so that I put food on my table and be able to pay school fees for my children and some essentials that I have been lacking due to financial challenges,” said Ms Khuphe. -chronicle.co.zw
