28 May 2024

As at 15^th May, the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) Branch in Molepolole had registered 4 210 applicants for the Chema Chema programme.

Addressing the Kweneng District Full council session on Monday, the Council Chairperson, Mr Allen Jacob, said LEA had been tasked with the registration of applicants for the programme. 

Mr Jacob said the fund covers short-term loan financing being procurement of infrastructure and working capital. 

He said the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) covers loan requests from illegible applicants who have completed the registration process and verification with LEA. 

Mr Jacob, aso councillor for Boribamo East, said a total of 1 518 registered applicants have successfully completed Records Keeping Training in Molepolole alone by the week ending 9^th May 2024, and other villages such as Lentsweletau will soon be covered. 

He said the Molepolole office was inundated with applicants where during the first day only, more than 700 applicants visited the office to register. 

He said the other challenge was the technical problems with the system, which delayed the registration of applicants, therefore causing long queues on the first weeks of the programme.

He told councillors that as of May 20^th, the CEDA branch had received a total of 259 applications and only four were closed due to non-compliance issues. 

He said 185 applications to the tune of over P1.2 million have been approved and 70 applications are currently being processed. 

Mr Jacob said the branch made it easy for disbursement to be done by including other payment platforms such as Orange Money, My Zaka, Smega and Poso Money.

“The agency understands that the majority of the informal businesses do not have bank accounts hence the inclusion of other platforms,” he highlighted. 

He added that to increase productivity, 12 temporary employees have been employed to deal with the Chema Chema loan appplications and they will be placed at satellite offices, which will be functional in due course as there is need to train them first. 

Mr Jacob said for the Kweneng District, the satellite offices would be at the Molepolole bus rank and the Sojwe Service Centre. 

He said CEDA was grateful for the partnership and the good gesture offered by the district leadership in ensuring that services are offered to citizens. Ends