April 1, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
Giving the fact that dozens of traders in Port Loko district are on the run due to failure to pay back micro credit loans, business women in the district are looking forward to the much talked about whopping one hundred billion Leones MUNAFA package which they believe will resuscitate their businesses now that there is no curfew, a stakeholder intimated this medium.
Supposed beneficiaries in the district are awaiting their slices from the twenty-six billion and fifty million Leones pilot phase of the MUNAFA package from the government of Sierra Leone.
Mariatu Turay told this medium that she was happy that she did not follow her friends taking micro-credits loans before. She said the way and manner the MUNAFA micro credit scheme is organized is one of the reasons many of them are going for the loan.
Speaker of Gbaki-L oko Chiefdom, Mohamed Malapi Tarawallie said few days ago, he got two people out of custody at the Magistrate court who served as guarantors for micro credit debtors. He said now that there is no curfew, businesses would thrive well and allow debtors to pay on time rather than running away.
It could be recalled that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDA) in collaboration with the Financial Services Providers together with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, have already commenced dishing out the money to the beneficiaries across the country, targeting four thousand one hundred registered businesses.
“One major challenge they have consistently highlighted is “Access to finance”, President Bio is reported to have said, adding that it is in that respect that his Minister of Finance announced during the 2020 budget, government’s intention to reintroduce a national microfinance scheme whose implementation was stalled by COVID but “COVID cannot stop us from doing what is right for our citizens”, President slammed.
The President had gone further, expressing that COVID could not stop government from providing women and youth, especially and MSMEs, with access to finance at concessionary rates. H.E. highlighted that MSMEs that would struggle to get loans from commercial banks at those high market rates can now access financing at very low rates.
For the first three months in 2021, government is disbursing Le26.05 Billion to 11 financial service providers. These Financial Service Providers will then go on to lend money out to 4,100 beneficiaries targeted in every district. These providers will implement the scheme in accordance with the operation’s manual.
The Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa reportedly stated that the Le100Billion MUNAFA FUND launched recently in Magburaka by President Julius Maada Bio, “Is not meant to score political points”. “We are merely ensuring that women and young people are able to access micro-finance funding in order to develop themselves, their families and their communities”, Mr. Saffa had explained.
A total of 50,000 people in all sixteen districts in the country are expected to benefit directly from this government funded scheme.