COMSIP rescuing community banking schemes after Cyclone Freddy
Cyclone Freddy left many people homeless
Community banking schemes which lost their properties during last year’s Cyclone Freddy can afford a smile as COMSIP comes to their rescue with a revolving fund.
In partnership with UNCDF, COMSIP is spearheading groundbreaking efforts to digitize the operations and transactions of community banking schemes known as Banki Mkhonde in the country.
COMSIP chief executive officer Tedson Gondwe says the K118 million multi-donor initiative is targeting 9 districts that were affected.
“We want to digitise all the transactions of the savings groups. Due to the effect of the cyclone, most of the groups lost their assets including their savings, making it difficult for them to repay the money they borrowed.
“In view of that, we have come up with the revolving fund which we are going to liquidate their accounts at group level so that they can start lending to each other. So, for us to track the transactions, that is why we are digitizing the operations so that we can also monitor their transactions easily,” clarified Gondwe.
Alfred Chilongo who is an assistant community development officer for Nsanje district council highlights that close to 9 thousand people are expected to benefit with the initiative in the lower Shire district.
Chilongo stressed that: “We lost a lot of things. The number of groups that were affected are over 170 with a total of over 8000 membership. We are moving from papers to the use of smartphones and I am sure that we will be able to serve and trace all the savings in the near future.”
Currently, COMSIP is from Monday this week, conducting a 4-day workshop on digitization for Extension Workers Trainer of Trainers in Blantyre with an aim of encouraging cashless savings among communities.
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