CTPD’s Isaac Able Mwaipopo seeks CDF loans and grants performance update

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By Derrick Sinjela

Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) Executive Director Isaac Able Mwaipopo is urging Government to provide an update on the performance of loans and grants being offered to beneficiaries under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Youth, Women and Community Empowerment categories.

 

While acknowledging that the loans and grants provided through CDF are intended to function as a revolving fund, Mwaipopo reiterated that repayment of public funds is  crucial to ensure continual access and empowerment for more Zambians in their respective constituencies.

 

In a Tuesday 12th March 2024 Statement circulated by CTPD’s Communications Specialist Mwaka Nyimbili, Mwaipopo observed that the government has continued to allocate funds from the treasury to constituency CDF accounts, with the public remaining unaware of whether constituencies are maintaining balances in their revolving fund accounts due to repayments of CDF loans by beneficiaries.

 

“CTPD appreciates government’s effort to improve access to affordable finance for Individual, Group, Small and Medium Enterprises through CDF, we remain alive to the fact that these are public funds. Ultimately, loan beneficiaries should repay these funds in order for constituencies to establish revolving funds that can benefit other members of the community. It is important for Government to put in place stringent measures that will ensure that beneficiaries of these loans pay back within a stipulated period if this initiative is to be sustainable,” advisedMwaipopo.

 

Mwaipopo notes that putting in place performance evaluation will prevent a scenario where beneficiaries fail to repay the loans as has been observed in previous public empowerment schemes.

“In these cases, the failure of loan beneficiaries to repay into the revolving funds hindered others from accessing loans resulting in short-lived and ineffective empowerment schemes,” Mwaipopo noted.

 

CTPD is a not- for –profit, membership based trade policy and development think tank established in 1999 and existed as the civil society trade network (CSTNZ), until 2009 when it was rebranded as the Centre for Trade Policy and Development,

with a mandate to influence pro-poor trade and investment reforms at national, regional and multilateral levels as well as facilitate the participation of various stakeholders including member organizations in ensuring that trade is used as a tool for poverty eradication.