BY SETHABILE MYENI
MBABANE – The virtually impaired people have made over E100 000 within a year through their saving and credit cooperative called Silalabenyoni Multi-purpose Cooperative.
This was disclosed by the chairperson of the cooperative, Mhlonishwa Mabatho this morning during an interview on EBIS letishisako program.
“The idea of starting this cooperative came after we were affected by COVID-19 and we decided that from what the government is giving us as monthly grants we should at least save E100. We were a group of 19 people when we started last year November 16, 2023,” he said.
He mentioned that they are now 27 members of the cooperative and they managed to make such a huge amount regardless of being virtually impaired.
“We have two members of the cooperative that are not virtually impaired, they are there to help us with some processes including auditing and accounts department, besides that we do everything by ourselves,” said Mabatho.
Mabatho said that the cooperative has helped some members to realise their dreams of being entrepreneurs and also helped entrepreneurs to grow their existing businesses.
“We have a member who was able to settle the amount due for a kombi he bought, another member started a mobile money business and one of our members built a house. We would also like to thank government who helped us to grow our funds by donating a tent worth E44 000 through National Youth Council and Taiwan in Eswatini,” he said.
He later mentioned that the cooperative is still open for new members but they are only open for virtually impaired people for now.
