NAMPULA COOPERATIVES RECEIVE FUNDING

Six agricultural cooperatives in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula are receiving loans from an NGO for production and marketing, but at a very high interest rate.The loans, for a total of slightly more than 1.5 million meticais (about 39,500 US dollars) come from the Mozambican Association for the Promotion of Modern Cooperatives (AMPCM), in partnership with a Norwegian development agency, Norges Vel (Royal Norwegian Society for Development). According to the AMPCM coordinator for northern Mozambique, Natalino Barnete, cited in an AMPCM press release, the money was distributed on the basis of the needs presented in the business plan of each of the cooperatives. The beneficiaries must repay the money within seven months, at an interest rate of 12.5 per cent.Barnete said he hoped that, if the six cooperatives repay the loans on time, this would create “a favourable environment for other organizations that require financing to benefit in the near future”.Barnete was speaking at the ceremony at which cheques for the loans were handed over to the six cooperatives. He said that the project seeks to help increase the income households through promoting viable and sustainable cooperative enterprises in order to strengthen business initiatives and create wealth”.AMPCM has provided the cooperatives with advice, and trained them in planning their business activities. This approach, said Barnete, culminated in drawing up business plans, and looking for sources of funding. He claimed that micro-finance institutions are now beginning to take seriously the work of agricultural producers organized in cooperatives.