CEDA loans repayments improve
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday June 22, 2017 19:00
According to the Agency’s chief executive officer, Thabo Thamane most of the businesses have managed to honour their debts obligations and are paying accordingly.
During 2014/2015 financial year, CEDA collected about P238 million against their set target of P264 million. The following year, they collected P265 million against a P283 million target while in the year 2016/2017, they raised P346 million against the P330 million target.
“We are happy with the collections because we consider some factors as well which include the business and its ability, because our aim is to help them grow not to destroy them,” Thamane told a press conference this week. Since inception, CEDA has funded about 6,000 businesses to the tune of P4.5 billion and creating over 57,000 jobs. According to Thamane, out of these businesses, about 200 of them were youth-owned that were assisted to the tune of P600 million.
“Out of the amount that we assisted the youth with, we funded the agricultural sector which is our key focus with P326 million. This was propelled by the Young Farmers Fund,” he said.
In addition, he mentioned that the property and manufacturing sector got P71 million while the service sector got P187 million. During the year 2015/2016, CEDA disbursed P442 million against P326 million subvention from government while the 2016/2017 it disbursed P446 million against P271 million subvention from the government. However, Thamane said they have challenges as they still receive standardised business plans as well as mismanagement of projects especially under the Young Farmers Fund as about 20% of them have been abandoned. He said CEDA realised that there is connivance between suppliers and the youth.
“We have realised that there is no creativity amongst the business plans that we receive. Most youth submit the same ideas, yet there are other opportunities. We need them to explore other sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and tourism as these are our key focus areas,” he said. Thamane added that the Agency had to review their business model to check their relevance in the market as the world has evolved. In addition, he said they have recently opened two branches in Kasane and Hukuntsi following their research findings. The Agency also has two mobile offices, which they use in other areas and expecting two more.