By CHUSA SICHONE –

.PEIF

THE Presidential Empowerment Initiative Fund (PEIF) has covered five provinces, with more than 17,000 marketeers and vendors benefiting so far.
PEIF national coordinator Clement Tembo also said that churches and chiefdoms had been included because they were custodians of the people.
Mr Tembo said in response to a Press query yesterday that the five provinces were Lusaka, Copperbelt, Eastern, Central and Southern while the PEIF was targeting to reach about 20,000 beneficiaries in 2018.
“Kindly note that these are not conclusive as we are initially targeting the biggest markets so that as funds revolve, we send them in other smaller markets to cover entire districts,” he said.
Asked how much was spent, Mr Tembo said funds were pumped in according to demand at a given time and so it was not a solid or set-out budget per say.
He also said that Zambians were now beginning to appreciate the revolving fund concept and that was why the targets were just estimates as they were either attained or not depending on performance.
Mr Tembo said the PEIF insisted that the recipients of the funds paid back the interest-free loans so that others could benefit and that the initiative would endeavour to consistently disburse the funds and ensure that the agenda of ensuring local traders accessed capital was achieved.
He said the disbursement criteria involved going from province-to-province, then getting down to districts and eventually to all constituencies while the recipient criteria was that one must be Zambian, a holder of green national registration card with evidence that they traded in a conventional market.
The PEIF carried out its activities by working closely with the local leadership like mayors, district commissioners and councillors.