03 Nov 2016

The district coordinator of Poverty Eradication Programme in Francistown, Mr Louis Mlilo says several packages were recently introduced in the programme.

Mr Mlilo said in an interview recently that the packages were  machinery-based such as charcoal, briquettes and firewood making, tyre recycling, pellet making, sachet filling, water purification, eggs incubation and several others.

He said these packages were introduced to add variety to the existing ones as well as to reduce repetition of projects.

Moreover, he said the intention was to alleviate challenges of stiff competitions and lack of market opportunities for end products.

Mr Mlilo said with the new packages, they highly encouraged beneficiaries to be in groups so as to increase the uptake, which in the long run would create employment opportunities for more people.

He also said with the strategy, they intended to cover a large number of beneficiaries in a cost effective manner.

“We encourage beneficiaries to be in groups, instead of spending more resources on an individual, we can have more people benefiting from one package at a less cost manner,” he said.

Mr Mlilo also noted that they were working closely with the departments of social and community development, animal production, forestry and range resources and gender affairs to implement and monitor the projects.

He further noted the existing projects such as bakery, fashion design, food catering and several others are doing exceptionally well.

“Bakery projects are doing well, Francistown City Council authority highly support beneficiaries who are into this.

They are often given out tenders to supply local schools with bread,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Mlilo also noted they were sometimes faced with challenges such as lack of commitment by some beneficiaries leading to the collapse of projects.

He also cited challenges of negligence of paying up water bills for some backyard gardens, which results in disconnections of water.

Furthermore, he decried of some beneficiaries who have a tendency to relocate to other areas and fail to notify the relevant officers.ENDS