Civil servants to establish ­saving cooperatives

In addition to the Financial Literacy Initiative (FLI) introduced by the government through the ministry of finance, the State plans to assist civil servants in establishing their own saving cooperatives.

This was announced by Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila during her staff address on Wednesday.

She said this measure will assist in preventing civil servants from going to loan sharks to borrow money. Some civil servants are prisoners of loan sharks, while others are deceived into having three funeral policies, but can ultimately only claim from one, the PM said.

“As civil servants, you then save among yourselves, not through a loan shark. You pull your resources together, you borrow from there, you determine your own interest rates,” she said.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the government will provide advice on what the good practices are to ensure that the schemes are sustainable.

The advice will also be on how to determine how much the amount of the loan would be and who to advance it to, as well as the appropriate repayment period.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila called on staff members to get to know more about this initiative and urged them to support its operationalisation.

The PM advised them to make good use of the ­initiative once it becomes operational, and not to use it to buy cellphones and pay off accounts. Instead, she said, they should buy a plot of land, establish a home for their families or pay for a child who did not get a ­scholarship to get an education.

– Nampa