Malawi’s National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, has initiated sensitization campaigns for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the country on how they can access funds for their businesses through loans.
According to the NEEF Director, Douglas Chavula, during a sensitization meeting for the SMEs in the Eastern Region at Zomba, although the agency had opened an opportunity for Malawians to apply for loans, only very few were expressing interest to access loans due to a lack of knowledge on what to do and how to access them.
“This meeting intended to raise awareness among SMEs on how they can access NEEF products and gain knowledge on how to manage their finances and grow their business,” he said.
Chavula noted that the agency has have disbursed about K 18.8 billion to 6,669 groups and 461 individual clients and they intend to reach out to as many people as possible because it is a key part of NEEF’s vision is to support many SMEs and to boost the country’s economy.
NEEF is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade Industry to carry out the sensitization. The Director of Micro, Medium Enterprises in the Ministry of Trade industry, Limbikani Kachiwaya, noted that the difficulties SMEs face in accessing loans from NEEF due to limited knowledge. It is in this vein the Ministry in partnership with NEEF decided to have these sensitizations to increase the number of people accessing finances for various businesses.
