By Memory Chatonda

Blantyre, April 10, Mana: Beneficiaries of Emergency Urban Cash Transfer Intervention (Mtukula Pakhomo WA Mmizinda) in Blantyre have hailed government for providing them with cash transfers to aalleviate immediate economic hardships they face in day to day life as each of the 43,355 beneficiaries received K150, 000 this week.

One of the beneficiaries, Agness Nthambala from Ndirande Township told Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Wednesday that with K150, 000 received under the intervention, she intends to boost her business capital on top of investing part of it in Village Savings and Loan (VSL) group.

“I run a grocery shop to support my three children with food and other basic necessities but currently, the shop is almost empty because I could not afford to raise enough money to restock the shop amidst devaluation. I am glad that I have received K150, 000 from government which will go a long way in supporting my business and I am grateful for the assistance,” she said.

Another beneficiary, Wilson Nedi from Zingwangwa Township said was determined to use the money to contribute to recapitalisation of his hardware business in Limbe market which was affected by the prices shock.

“Besides, I will use the money to purchase food and related basic necessities at my home as one way of creating resilience in the face of price shock that arose from the devaluation,” he said

National Local Government Finance Committee, Shock Sensitive Specialist and Scalable Mechanism Coordinator, Mulder Mkutumula said he was glad that beneficiaries plan to invest the money in small income generating activities to support their families.

“It is imperative that the beneficiaries understand that they need to use the funds very well as we just had El-Nino and this year we may have some food insecurity. They can invest it by joining the Community Savings Investment Promotion (COMSIP) groups like VSL in order to save more money,” he said.

According to Mkutumula, as of Monday this week at total of K6.7 billion had been disbursed through TNM to 43,335 beneficiaries in Blantyre city, with each receiving K150, 000.

Deputy Director of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Gender, Laurent Kansinjiro said was satisfied with the intervention expressing optimism that it would go a long way to create resilience in communities at a time they are facing hardships including hunger.

The K15.7 billon intervention which is under the Malawi Social Protection Support Programme targets 105,000 households in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba cities and is funded by World Bank and Malawi Social Protection Multi donor Trust fund.