Community Service and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) looks to unlock financial barriers in communities in the rural areas by increasing people’s access to products such as savings and loans.
COMSIP project manager Ernest Jumbe says the media can help strengthen financial inclusion among Community Based Financial Organizations (CBFOs).
Jumbe made the remarks in Karonga during an orientation with members of the press from the district on the newly implemented deepening financial inclusion through community based financial organizations project.
Jumbe said CBFOs are encountering a lot of challenges such as limited ability to pull large savings hence the media’s importance in the project.
“What among others that we want to address is the capacity gap of CBFOs in providing quality affordable financial services thus the media is key in the transfer of knowledge but also mindset change in the communities in the uptake of services and products,” he said
The project manager further said among others the project will capacitate the groups to be able to afford but also produce financial products and services in serving their respective communities and membership hence the people will have a chance to access products such as savings and loans thereby deepening financial inclusion in their rural areas.
One of the participants from Malawi News Agency, Leonard Masauli, expressed gratitude to the organization for seeing it fit to involve the media in the implementation of the project.
He added that the media’s role is pivotal in advocating for a better and affordable access to financial services considering majority of the people in the rural areas don’t have access to small loans to startup businesses.
“As a journalist our advocacy role will help to influence change in certain policies or decisions that impede the people’s financial growth,” Masauli articulated.
COMSIP cooperative union limited through financial access to rural markets and smallholder enterprises (FARMSSE) with funding from International Fund For Agriculture Development (IFAD) has implemented the 3-year project in eight districts namely, Karonga, Ntcheu, Neno, Mwanza, Zomba, Phalombe, Mulanje and Nsanje targeting about 9300 people in Karonga and 75000 in total across the country.
