adminBlessings Chidakwa Mash West Correspondent
MHONDORO-Ngezi Rural District Council has embarked on income-generating projects to boost the local authority’s revenue inflows. The projects include gold milling, a fuel project and hiring out a borehole drilling rig. These are expected to generate over $1 million annually for council.
In an interview on Wednesday, chief executive officer Mr Itai Mawonde said council had high hopes that the projects would boost revenue generation and improve service delivery. He said the projects were still at infancy stage.
“So far so good. The projects are going on well. The gold mill has been operating for about four months now, and its operations look pretty good for us. As for the rig, the project is also picking up and there are good indicators of a bright future ahead of us. We look forward to next year with optimism,” said Mr Mawonde.
Mr Mawonde said they were using internally generated revenue and loans to finance the projects.
“We first applied for $550 000 under proposed borrowing powers from Government, and it took three years before the approval of $315 000. We also used council coffers to kick-start the life changing projects,” he said.
Mr Mawonde said the funds were split to cater for each project. At least $340 000 was used to set up the borehole drilling rig business and $99 000 went towards the purchase of the gold mill.
Part of the money went towards purchase of a generator and construction of an office and houses for the project workers. Mr Mawonde said they trained staff to maximise production. He said the rig will help improve access to clean water for the Mhondoro-Ngezi community, and would be hired out.
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