K6.7 million spent on women empowerment across the country

Government has disclosed that it has spent K6.7 million on acquiring machinery and providing start up capital for empowering women across the country from 2012 to 2013.

Minister of Gender and Child Development Inonge Wina told ZANIS in an interview that government through the empowerment fund is providing equipment and funds to women clubs in order to empower them economically.

The Minister said that the machinery and finances being given to women who are the majority of the peasant farmers are intended to help them become self sufficient and insure food security

“Poverty levels in Zambia are very high. So government saw it fit to procure equipment to alleviate women suffering,” she said.

Mrs Wina said that government has assisted over 286 women clubs in all the ten provinces across the country in 2013 and is overwhelmed by the response it has received.

The Minister said she would love to increase the funding threshold but bemoaned the lack of adequate national resources to meet the increasing demand for financial assistance.

Mrs Wina emphasized that her Ministry will cement focus on value additions to productive ventures that the women’s clubs will engage in, adding that her ministry will consider linking up the women clubs to larger markets in order to maximise on the sale of their goods, products and services.

The Ministry of Gender has been funding ventures ranging from hammer mill acquisitions, sausage making machines, beehives, chicken rearing, banana boat transport facilities and block making machines.