Poor repayment rate dries up CEDA coffers

The cash squeeze is likely to force the agency to seek a P25 million bridging facility from Government to carry it through to the end of its financial year, which falls in March next year. CEDA, which is mandated by Government to support and promote citizens entrepreneurship, has exhausted the P600 million it received from the fiscus in 2003, but the revolving nature of the fund is being crippled by customers' failure to service their loans.

Since its inception six years ago, CEDA has received over 8 800 applications valued at P5.75 billion, but has only disbursed P924 million for 1 641 approved projects.
Speaking at a press briefing on the implementation and performance of the CEDA programme, the Chief Executive Officer of the ambitious citizen empowerment fund Thapelo Matsheka said the performance of the projects funded to-date has not been satisfactory.