Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A TOTAL of 65 women and youth groups in Gwanda District have started accessing the $250,000 Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust (GCSOT) loan facility meant to support empowerment projects.The loans are disbursed by CBZ after the trust signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the bank last year.

GCSOT administrator Coster Nkala said CBZ has started disbursing the loans to the 65 groups that met the minimum requirements.

He said 330 women and youths would benefit from the loan that is payable after a year with 10 percent interest.

The maximum loan given to a group is $5,000 while individuals will get $1,000.

“CBZ has started disbursing funds to the loan beneficiaries from the five chiefs in Gwanda District. We’ve a total of 34 women groups and 31 youth groups, which also include people with disabilities. The loan is meant to support new projects and those that are already in existence,” said Nkala.

He said the main target was to ensure that at the end of the day the beneficiaries are empowered.

Nkala said funded projects included horticulture, piggery, poultry, cattle restocking and cattle fattening, manufacturing, construction, small scale mining, procurement, carpentry and metal work.

He said to ensure the loans were put to good use, the beneficiaries underwent skills training in various aspects of business.

“We started by sensitising the communities in trying to minimize the default risk. We trained the selected beneficiaries in partnership with other government departments such as Agritex and the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development,” said Nkala.

He said the idea was to establish a revolving fund so that more people can benefit.

The main thrust of the GCSOT is to economically develop communities in Gwanda.

President Mugabe officially launched GCSOT on May, 18, 2012 in Coleen Bawn as part of the indigenisation drive that seeks to ensure communities benefit from natural resources exploited in their areas.

The programme has channelled more than $2,5 million towards development projects since its inception.

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