By Joel Phiri

Mzimba, October 31, Mana: Principal Community Development officer for M’mbelwa District Council Topsy Kachere has underscored the need for various stakeholders working in promoting Savings Loans Groups (SLGs) in the district to follow guidelines and work together to strengthen coordination, collaboration and service delivery.

Kachere made the remarks on Thursday in Mzimba during a meeting with various stakeholders organised with funding from the Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprises (FARMSE).

He said for a long-time stakeholders that promote savings and loans groups have been working without guidelines which made it haphazard on service delivery as every organisation was executing its work in isolation and without following established guidelines.

‘‘It’s like in reaching out to members of various savings and loans groups (SLGs) there were no guidelines among various stakeholders. So, with funding from FARMSE we organised this meeting for Mzimba based organisations to orient them on Savings and Loans groups terms of reference (TORs). The objective is to ensure harmony in how we work’’, he said.

African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) regional coordinator for the North Hopkins Mwanza said the training was very important as it will enhance their knowledge in working in communities and promoting savings and loans groups.

Mwanza said most community members who join village savings groups such as bank Mkhonde lack knowledge in financial literacy, organisation management, good governance and agribusiness management to run the organisations they belong to successfully.

‘‘So this orientation will help members know which areas are in need of support among savings loans groups. By honing such skills through this training we will be able to impart the same and transform community savings and loans groups’’, said Mwanza.

A member of the Tikolelaneko community-based organization from Jenda, Maness Nkhoma hailed the training saying it equipped them with the prerequisite knowledge and skills needed for the successful operation of financial groups.