Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Elias Mubanga has admitted political interference in the issuance of citizens empowerment funds.
And the Minister has revealed that because of this, his Ministry wants to do things differently going forward.
Mr. Mubanga disclosed that the human element to a larger extent contributed to the non-performing loans disbursed by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC).
Mr. Mubanga was briefing the Committee on Parastatal Bodies which is chaired by Zambezi East member of Parliament who called on him at his office today.
And Committee Chairperson wanted to know the reason for the non-performing loans and the strategies being employed to counter non-performing loans.
In response, Mr. Mubanga stated that in doing things differently, the ministry was looking at three strategic policy direction namely building capacity to SMEs; creating access to affordable financing for SMEs and linking them to readily available markets.
And Shiwangandu member of Parliament Stephen Kapyongo called on CEEC to decentralise its portfolio function to expedite access by the beneficiaries.
The committee is touring projects cited in the Report of the Auditor General on Accounts of Parastatal Bodies for the financial year ended 31st December 2019.
In the 2019 Auditor General’s report about K109 million accounted for non-performing loans and these were in respect of six beneficiaries.
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