BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Informal Traders Guarantee Fund, an initiative aimed at empowering grassroots entrepreneurs, has witnessed a consistent uptake in loans, with an impressive E558 625 advanced to 109 individuals during Eswatini Development Finance Corporation (FINCORP)’s 2023 financial year.
Since its inception in 2019, the scheme has successfully provided a total of E1.3 million to deserving clients, benefiting approximately 200 traders and indirectly impacting about 1 000 individuals, thus making significant strides towards poverty alleviation.
Speaking about the fund’s progress, FINCORP Group Managing Director, Dumisani Msibi said: “We are delighted to see the Informal Traders Guarantee Fund making a positive impact on the lives of individuals at the grassroots level. The steady growth in loans disbursed demonstrates the trust and confidence that our informal traders’ clients have in this initiative.”
Meanwhile, according to the report, only 19 applications were received under the Small-Scale Enterprise Loan Guarantee Scheme (SSELGS). The scheme was established in the early 1990s by the Government of Eswatini under the Ministry of Commence, Industry and Trade, and was placed at the Central Bank for administrative purposes together with the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme (ECGS).
It is used to mitigate the lack of adequate collateral to cover risks associated with SME business loans. FINCORP is one of the SSELGS participating lending institutions that have recently been endorsed by the Central Bank and the company began lending under this scheme in February 2022.
In the report, the company noted a slower uptake of the scheme, as highlighted by the receipt of only 19 applications during the year as vendors were still grappling with debts arising from the destabilization of their businesses by COVID 19 and the civil unrest said FINCORP Group Managing Director Dumisani Msibi.
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