NDB faces funding shortfall a

By EMMANUEL MAIPE
THE National Development Bank (NDB) is facing a shortfall in its budget this year and would be unable to fund the remaining loan applications unless given the balance of its K130 million budget allocation.
More than K100 million worth of loan applications have been received by NDB from all over the country.
However, it has only funded K45 million worth of loan applications from its clients.
The NDB would be unable to fund the remaining K60 million loan applications unless it receives the remaining K70 million that it requested for from the national government.
It was originally allocated a total of K130 million in the 2012 budget by the previous government.
Calls were made earlier this year to the government by former managing director and now Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru to release the funds quickly.
However, the budget for NDB was later revised down to K80 million, as it did not receive K50 million from the government.
The bank’s acting managing director Moses Liu told The National that the K130 million – if ever received – would have gone towards loan applications.
He said clients had been applying since the announcement by the previous government of the K130 million funding to the NDB through the 2012 budget.
Since then, the balance has not been paid up to the NDB and the bank must look for other means to generate funds to make up for the shortfall in the budget to fund the remaining loan applications. 
Liu said the bank hadbeen generating some funds internally to cater for the remaining loan applications that had not been funded yet.
“A net K20 million has been generated internally from the payments of loans made by our clients that will meet part of the short fall,” he said.
The NDB’s primary function is to provide accessible development credit to citizens to engage in income generation to improve the quality of lives of the people, especially in the rural areas of the country.
Most of its clients are from agriculture, fisheries, and other small businesses that need funding to operate.