About 113 thousand Kwacha will be given to women in Chipata as loans under the Village Bank Programme by the Department of Community Development.
Chipata District Community Development Officer, Nelson Banda confirmed this to Breeze News.
Mr. Banda says the programme that will start this month is targeting women with small scale businesses such as marketeers and vendors, who will get money ranging from 500 to 2,000 Kwacha.
He says the aim of the programme is to assist women scale up their businesses, adding that the women are expected to pay back the money with an interest of 0.8 percent.
Mr. Banda says the number of beneficiaries for Chipata is expected to go up from 140 women who benefitted last year.
He says that the beneficiaries are being followed up by authorities from the Department of Community Development to check how their business is improving to avoid defaulting.
And Mr. Banda says the department will ensure that women who will benefit from the Village Bank are different from those that are benefitting from the Presidential Initiative Fund.