Kitui County women representative Irene Kasalu has mooted plans to set up an umbrella Sacco for women groups to access loans.
“I want the over 4,000 women groups in our county to reap full benefits of the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) Kitty by constantly getting loans and invest money in income-generating projects,” said Kasalu.
She was speaking at Waita Trading Centre in Mwingi Central Sub-county, in Kitui on Tuesday when she disbursed NGAAF cheques valued at Sh. 200,000 to 20 women groups in Waita ward.
“We will soon have the Kitui NGAAF Sacco up and running. The affirmative action fund channelled through my office will be pooled together and women group members will borrow the money and pay at a modest interest,” said the women representative.
She said access to constant loans will enable Kitui women to become economically empowered and in effect kick out poverty. “I want Kitui women to have bottomless access to money through loans even at times when the NGAAF money has delayed,” said Kasalu.
The legislator lamented that her office received a little allocation for the NGAAF kitty vis-a-vis the many women groups applying for the grants. She, however, said she was optimistic that allocations to NGAAF would soon improve.
“We are overwhelmed by the high number of women groups who are knocking at our doors to get the NGAAF grant money. It is time the national government allocated more funds to NGAAF so that we can optimally service the high number of applicants.
At the said time she lamented that quite a sizeable number of women groups in Kitui failed to meet the threshold to qualify for the NGAAF grants because they did not active back account and updated registrations certificates among other things.
“As women groups apply for the NGAAF funding they must ensure they meet all the laid down criteria less they will be denied the funds because my office cannot break the law to give money to groups that do not qualify,” said Kasalu.
