1 October 2008
ACTING President, Rupiah Banda, has launched the disbursement of the Economic Empowerment Fund, with a message to Zambians to embrace the culture of paying back loans.
Mr Banda said on Monday night in Solwezi at the end of his tour of North-Western Province that beneficiaries needed to pay back what they borrowed for others to benefit.
"Please note that the empowerment fund is not a grant, beneficiaries need to pay back what they borrow so that as many citizens as possible can benefit from the fund," Mr Banda said.
He said Zanaco, Standard Chartered Bank, NATSAVE, Finance Bank and Barclays Bank had been identified as partners in the disbursement of K10 billion allocated to each of the nine provinces.
Mr Banda said the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) would work through existing structures throughout Zambia to ensure all citizens with viable projects accessed the empowerment project.
He said empowerment committees had been established at district and provincial levels to appraise and recommend projects of up to K50 million, with bigger projects sent through to the CEEC head office for approval.
"I urge the commission and committees set up to appraise projects to exercise utmost integrity and transparency, be strict and ensure that projects that are funded will provide profit for the project and employment for the communities where the projects will be operating," Mr Banda said.
He said in May, the Government directed the CEEC to accelerate the process of developing guidelines for disbursing the empowerment funds, with the late President Levy Mwanawasa - who launched the policy programme - giving a deadline of June.
And Commerce Trade and Indutry Minister, Felix Mutati, said the success of the fund, would be determined by how many people graduate from it.
"People of Zambia are tired of stories; this is time for delivery," Mr Mutati said at the launch attended by Solwezi chiefs and four from Eastern Province including Paramount Chief Mpezeni and Senior Chief Nzamane.
Saying Solwezi was chosen to launch the fund, as the Government believes the people of North-Western Province had the potential to be rich, he urged the people not to let the Government down.
Provincial Minister, Kenneth Chipungu, said many people in the province had been asking about the fund, and the province wanted to see speedy disbursement without red tape.
CEEC chairperson, Jacob Sikazwe, said empowerment was a journey and not an event, and the launch of the empowerment fund was yet another milestone in the journey.
He said the 'New Deal' Government introduced broad-based economic empowerment after previous policies like the Mulungushi economic reforms did not achieve the desired results.
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