Chronicle Editor
Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
PELANDABA-Mpopoma legislator Mr Joseph Tshuma yesterday said his Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will be channelled towards capacitating small businesses in order to create more jobs.
Parliament has reserved $50 000 for each legislator to enable them to fund development projects and programmes in their constituencies.
Mr Tshuma urged businesspeople in his constituency to submit sound business proposals which highlight the intended impact of the project to the community.
“Bulawayo does not have jobs at the moment because many companies closed. We have decided that instead of spending CDF money on painting schools and buying furniture, the money will be used for income generating projects.
“We will invest the money into projects and small businesses. Businesspeople should therefore submit their proposals immediately to my office.
“Anyone from my constituency who thinks he or she has a viable business proposal should submit it stating how many youths from this constituency will be employed as a result of the proposed project,” said Mr Tshuma.
The businesspeople from Pelandaba-Mpopoma constituency told the legislator that lack of funding was crippling their businesses’ growth.
They proposed that they be given the CDF as loans which they will repay with interest.
Mr Christopher Dube who owns a shop in the constituency said:
“We are facing financial challenges and we heard that there is a CDF that is going to be released. Our request was that you give us this money as loans and we grow our businesses, employ our youths and develop the community then we can repay the money with interest.”
“We cannot borrow from banks because some of us have no collateral and bank interest charges are too high for small businesses. This fund will therefore provide cheap capital for business expansion,” he said
Last week, Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda encouraged legislators to take the CDF matter seriously for the development of their constituencies after it emerged that only two of the 129 applications had managed to meet the criteria to access the fund.
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