Africa-Press – Zambia. Minister of Small and Medium Enterprise Elias Mubanga has challenged the local people of Lupososhi and Luwingu districts to be innovative and acquire the necessary skills for them to access contracts.
The minister who is conducting sensitization programmes on empowerment funds said the government wants to see people within constituencies benefit from the many empowerment programmes it is implementing. Mr. Mubanga stated that the government is committed to fostering development in all parts of the country by empowering the local people.
“We do not want to get people from outside this constituency to come and do contracts here, the government wants to see each constituency develop by empowering people from within their constituencies. “He said.
The minister has since encouraged the locals to learn skills that will enable them to perform quality work. He disclosed that the government has released the first batch of K5.1 million under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to each constituency in the first quarter of 2022.
He also highlighted that women and youths have been allocated a sum of K 5 million from the K25.7 million CDF allocation for constituencies. The Minister further encouraged the locals to form cooperatives and set up businesses to benefit from the funds it is releasing.
ZANIS reports that Mr Mubanga said this when he held a meeting at Chungu market in Senior Chieftainess Chungu Chiefdom in Lupososhi District. Earlier, the Minister also paid a courtesy call on the Senior Chieftainess Chungu where he explained the various empowerment programs which the government is implementing.
The traditional leader said the engagement of local contractors in Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects will help the district to attain meaningful development. She said decentralization of development programs will help to create employment for local people.
She has expressed confidence that once local people are engaged in CDF projects, it will help address the high unemployment levels which in turn leads to poverty reduction.
“Because local people understand their needs they will make sure that they work to the best of their abilities as it is for their community” she said And Lupososhi District Commissioner Simon Mwenya appealed to the government to build more hospitals near to the people.
Meanwhile, Luwingu District Commissioner Chomba Chileshe disclosed that the district has 501 registered cooperatives of which 50 cooperatives are engaged in business activities while the rest are under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
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