15 May 2024

Chema Chema programme has registered a positive response from women compared to their male counterparts.

Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) branch manager for Masunga office Mr Robert Phuti  explained in an interview that since inception of the programme in April, they have seen a good number of women from all ages coming forth for registration at their respective offices across the districts.

Mr Phuti whose office jurisdiction covers some parts of North East, Tutume District and Sowa Town said women, mostly with hawkers’ licences, street vendors and those owning tuck shops were the ones who have registered.

He noted that, although the programme was owned by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, LEA had been mandated to facilitate registration, training and mentorship before beneficiaries proceed for loan application at Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency.

He added one of the prerequisite of Chema Chema funds applications was for the applicant to have been trained by LEA.

He said  in order to speed up the processes, they have made a schedule to cover interested applicants across the different areas in terms of training.

He further noted that this particular training was different from the ones they usually hold, adding that instead of advertising dates for training,  arrangements were done based on the number of people who have registered for Chema Chema.

Mr Phuti thus mentioned that currently they were training in Tutume with the first batch of trainees having completed their session on Tuesday.

Another training is from May 15 to 16 still in Tutume adding that the training would continue to other areas within the district including Nata and Gweta.

He pointed out that initially, when  the programme started, registration was done online but due to some technical challenges, they resorted to manual hence opening offices  in Sebina, Tutume, Nata and Gweta.  Mr Phuti said the idea was to reach out to all those interested in the programme.

He also stated that they were planning to have a community outreach to areas where they have not set up offices as informed by their daily reports.

He said have been able to pick from reports, places that needed to be sensitised looking at the numbers registered.

He said since registration report included the place where one came from, it made their job easier to track areas that required attention. ENDS