NEEF Sounds Alarm: Youths Underutilizing Billions in Loan Opportunities

The National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF) Limited has expressed concern that many youths are inadvertently undermining their access to NEEF loan opportunities due lack of knowledge and power ownership mindset on the accessed loans.

Humphrey Mdyetseni, Chief Executive Officer for NEEF, sounded the alarm on Sunday in Blantyre during an awareness session for stakeholders (youths) on how best they can utilize the loans in line with NEEF’s and the government’s goals for youth empowerment.

“We are still concerned with how the youths are accessing our loans. A large number of youths are getting loans, but the amounts they are requesting are still very small; they cannot significantly change their lives in terms of profit they earn from their businesses,” said Mdyetseni. He added that this trend is “undermining NEEF and government plans in empowering youths, thereby impacting the country’s economic standard.”

Mdyetseni reported that out of over 200,000 targeted people meant to benefit through Macro irrigation loans, over K24 Billion has already been disbursed in the last three months to 60,000 people. Notably, over 50 percent of these beneficiaries are youths, a higher proportion than men and women on national records. He also confirmed that over K70 Billion remains available for beneficiaries.

Mdyetseni further explained that the primary challenge is that the amounts requested are too small to significantly change lives or generate substantial business profits.

This awareness campaign aims to equip youths with additional knowledge on responsible loan access, thereby contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In his remarks, Andrew Chimpololo, Regional Coordinator for the Youth Empowerment group in the Southern region,commended NEEF for the timely awareness, stating that it will indeed change the youths’ mindset regarding loan access.

He added that over 190 youths from the Shire Highlands and Blantyre urban and rural areas attended the meeting.