PwDs tap 2.14bn/- empowerment loans
IRINGA: PEOPLE with disabilities (PwDs) in Iringa Region have started benefiting from government empowerment loans totalling 2.14bn/-, with some using the funds to establish businesses, increase their incomes and create employment opportunities for others.
The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliament, Coordination and Persons with Disabilities), Ummy Nderiananga, said this during her visit to Iringa Region to inspect the implementation of empowerment programmes for people with disabilities.
She said the government aimed to ensure that people with disabilities used loan opportunities to build their economic capacity and become self-reliant rather than continue depending on assistance.
“This loan is not charity. It is an opportunity to empower people with disabilities to become self-reliant, increase their incomes and even employ others,” Ms Nderiananga said.
She said, besides accessing loans, people with disabilities should identify other opportunities to expand their businesses, including participating in government tenders and producing goods required by public institutions.
She cited brick-making, tailoring school uniforms, clean cooking energy businesses and other services that could be undertaken according to beneficiaries’ abilities.
Ms Nderiananga said local government authorities should put in place strategies to ensure that people with disabilities had access to markets for their products so that the loans they received could generate tangible results.
She also urged Iringa Region to accelerate efforts to empower people with disabilities, saying there was still significant room to increase both the number of beneficiaries and the amount of funds provided.
Ms Nderiananga further urged people with disabilities to have confidence in themselves and reject stigma, saying they had the capacity to fully participate in economic activities and contribute to community development.
She said the government would continue working with councils and other stakeholders to ensure that people with disabilities had access to education, capital and markets that would enable them to improve their lives.
For his part, Iringa Regional Chairperson of the Association of People with Disabilities, Shabani Shomari, said education on the loans should be strengthened to prevent some beneficiaries from failing to repay them.
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He said some people with disabilities had taken loans whose management was subsequently handled by relatives or other people, a situation that could affect how the funds were used and repaid.
“We need people with disabilities to be given adequate education about these loans so that they understand them and use them for their intended activities,” Mr Shomari said.
According to a report presented by Iringa Municipal Council Loans Coordinator, Sunday Mathayo, the council has issued 2.14bn/- to 183 groups of women, youth and people with disabilities since the loan programme was reinstated in 2024.
Of the amount, 27 groups of people with disabilities received 189.76m/-, increasing beneficiaries’ capacity to engage in various economic activities.
