The Local Development Fund (LDF) has reaffirmed its commitment to giving socio-economic assets to district councils and municipalities with the aim of ensuring their financial sustainability.
After a successful first phase of constructing a bus depot, a market, a rural growth centre and a stadium in Nkhata Bay, Ntcheu, Rumphi and Nkhotakota, respectively, the LDF has said it plans to fund similar projects in the remaining districts.
LDF Head of Development Communications Booker Matemvu disclosed the plan on Friday when his team inspected progress on the new Nkhata Bay bus depot and market.
He said with decentralisation, infrastructural development is crucial since it is at the source of resource generation for the councils.
“This is in line with the decentralisation agenda. The nation can only prosper if local councils are financially independent. This is why we ask councils to propose to us what sort of assets they think can enhance their revenue generation. In the next few years we are taking the initiative to the remaining councils,” Matemvu explained.
In his remarks, general foreman for the two projects, Steven Fombe, said they plan to complete the construction of both structures by the end of this month.
Commenting on safety nets programmes, Matemvu said the LDF continues to fund the Public Works Programme and social cash transfers programmes which target poor households and the ultra-poor respectively.
“The two programmes aim at improving livelihoods of individual households with the hope of graduating them from the poverty cycle, hence the three-year repeat beneficiary approach,” explained Matemvu.
Speaking separately, monitoring and evaluation officer for Nkhata Bay District Council, Kondwani Ghambi, said LDF projects have been instrumental in raising the socio-economic profiles of beneficiary districts.
He, however, bemoaned cases of ghost workers and complacency in some targeted communities as major hitches to the initiatives.
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