Bwana Mkubwa PF Member of Parliament Jonas Chanda has said that 1,200 community members are being empowered for income generating activities (IGAs).
The empowerment fund is coming from the 2017 Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
The Lawmaker disclosed this when he addressed members of community clubs in Mushili and Twashuka wards.
Dr Chanda said forty (40) registered community clubs in all seven (7) wards of the constituency are going to benefit from about K400,000.
“Each club is receiving support worth about K10,000 in procured inputs for approved projects. There will be strong project supervision, monitoring and evaluation. This seed money can have a multiplier effect and benefit thousands of people. With hard work and accountability, you can transform community clubs into cooperatives or even companies. You can open supermarkets and wholesale shops as community clubs have done in countries like Botswana, Rwanda, Austria and others,” he said.
He reminded community club members that the purpose of empowerment is to start-up profit-making project-oriented IGAs.
Dr Chanda said only productive income generation and wealth creation can reduce high poverty at household and community level.
In response, Community club members expressed happiness saying this is the first time in the history of Bwana Mkubwa constituency that community clubs are being empowered with CDF funds. Some IGAs community clubs are engaged in include chicken and small animal rearing, gardening, block making, wholesale cement selling, tailoring and marketeers businesses.