22 Jul 2024

About P175 million has already been spent to assist 12 000 people under the Chema Chema programme, chief operations officer at Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Mr James Moribame has said.

Speaking during the stakeholder engagements with members of the public  in Palapye on Saturday, Mr Moribame said 443 of beneficiaries were from Palapye District and had been borrowed P5.4 million.

He said Palapye was one of the largest villages in the country that had seen population growth over the years.

Therefore, they expected large number of applicants for the programme, but unfortunately this was not the case.

He, however, expressed concern over the small number of people in Palapye who showed interest in Chema Chema programme.

He said their wish was for young people to show themselves in high numbers.

He said the aim of programme was to uplift people out of poverty and aid businesses to grow so that people could employ others.

Mr Moribame said available figures showed that women were leading recipients of Chema Chema and had received 67 per cent of the P175 million.

He appealed to men to participate in the programme, saying government had availed P500 million which if unutilised, the money could be returned to general government coffers.

He urged recipients to be patient saying at times an applicant may have borrowed less than what he/she requested.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship Mr Kabelo Ebineng said Chema Chema programme was designed for Batswana who lacked funding to develop their ideas into businesses.

He said it was worrying that people were not showing up in numbers, hence encouraged them to efficiently utilise the funding by March next year before the end of government financial year.

He said they had expected a large number of applicants from Mahalapye, Palapye and Tswapong areas because the catchment area had large numbers of people. He said Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and CEDA were working together to facilitate and train beneficiaries to develop robust businesses.

The purpose of the engagements was to enlighten members of the public about the benefits of taking advantage of Chema Chema fund and to get first-hand information from beneficiaries on the uptake of the programme. ENDS