IN a bid to eradicate poverty in Dodoma City, the City Council of Dodoma (CCD) will this year release 853m/- as loans to 109 youth, women and people living with disabilities’ associations to enable them engage in income generating activities.
Making the revelation at workshop organised by the City Council here recently on capacity building and good management of loans, the Council’s Social Welfare Officer, Ms Sharifa Nabalang’anya, said the money would come straight from their revenues collected.
“We have set aside 10 per cent of our budget to support youth, women and people living with disabilities as per the government’s directives,” she further said.
The three-day workshop brought together about 109 youth, women and people living with disabilities associations, who benefitted from the programme.
However, Ms Nabalang’anya urged the beneficiaries to make use of the loans wisely to improve their livelihoods. She noted that the main goal of the training was to build capacity of the beneficiaries and acquire skills on how to tackle challenges in business.
“We are training 109 associations of youth, women and people living with disabilities in order to address possible challenges in conducting business,” she observed.
Ms Nabalang’anya further said that the workshop skills would be used to improve also their entrepreneurship skills, adding that in the course, it would lead them to eradicate poverty at their household and national level.
“Entrepreneurship pays off…youth, women and people living with disabilities should now grab opportunities to improve their lives,” she said.
Commenting, Mr Christopher Magesa, one of the workshop participants, thanked the City Council for the training, saying he would become a good ambassador to pass the message to his fellow small-scale entrepreneurs.
“I have learnt a lot in the workshop. The training has built my capacity to manage well my business and capital and repay the loan on timely basis,” he said.
