Africa-Press – Botswana. Member of Parliament for Moshupa/Manyana, Mr Karabo Gare has assured his constituents that the newly launched Chema Chema business funding programme is a permanent component of government schemes basket.
Mr Gare said this during a consultative kgotla meetings in Manyana, where CEDA and LEA brought their services to assist aspiring entrepreneurs interested in benefiting from Chema Chema Fund.
He appealed to residents to disregard allegations that the fund was an election stunt, adding that the fund was one of the government initiatives aimed at improving people’s lives.
“Chema Chema is aimed at assisting new and existing informal businesses. Government will continue to fund this programme for five years, after which it will be able to sustain itself,” he said.
On that note, he implored his constituents to take advantage of the newly founded Chema Chema to open and improve their businesses.
Mr Gare advised those who had not registered for the loan to ensure that they do.
He further said he was in the process of registering all informal businesses in his constituency in order to benefit from the programme.
Mr Gare, also the Minister of Entrepreneurship, shared that he brought CEDA and LEA services since villagers needed to travel in order to access them, adding that they had also engaged agents who would remain in respective villages to assist those interested in requesting for funding.
“There is absolutely no need to hesitate from accessing this loan as it only carries an interest of 2.4 per cent annually, which is the lowest you can ever get from any lender, therefore there is no need for anyone to be left behind,” he said.
He urged all to ensure that they strove to liaise with the drivers of the programme in order to benefit and boost their lives.
For his part, LEA CEO, Mr Godfrey Molefe appreciated public response, adding that so far they had received a total of 8 448 completed registrations through self-registration online.
He, however, advised that they had shutdown the use of self-registration, pending remedial works and maintenance, adding that currently people could only hand deliver to LEA offices near them.
“We have processed a total of 1 393 applications, and returned 367 application that were not proper. At the time when our system was functioning 1 026 applicants were ready to apply for loans,” he said.
Mr Molefe shared that the backlog in the system would be cleared as soon as the system would be back to normal, adding that communication would be made to those who registered online so that they could complete their registration.
“All in all a total of 20 985 accounts have been created in our system, out of which 8 448 have been completed,” he said.
In his remarks, Kanye CEDA branch manager, Mr Tuelo Rabaloi shared that so far they had received and approved four applications, which were due to be funded.
He advised that applicants could start filling the forms whilst waiting to be entered into the system at LEA so that they could be able to submit the application at CEDA without delay.
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