Schnaubelt pushes for financial literacy in rural areas

PEOPLE in rural areas need to know financial literacy, says Namatanai MP Walter Schnaubelt.
Schnaubelt said his focus on Small to Medium Enterprises and financial inclusion was to first improve primary education.
He said it could not be expected of people in rural areas to know about financial literacy if they did not have basic education.
He said another pressing challenge was the lack of funding for small businesses as start-up capital.
He started the Walter’s Farming Association which now has around 2000 members who pay K25 annually.
“I started the association because I saw a huge void in the village setting to start any form of business especially farmers who are trying to go into farming and do not have funding.”
The association supplies seedlings of oil palm and cocoa to farmers. It also helps those who have interest in piggery and poultry.
He said the association’s work with farmers interested in oil palm faced difficulties as farmers could not fund the cultivation of the crop.
“Farmers trying to get into the industry have difficulty in meeting the capital of K1020 to plant one hectare of oil palm seedling,” he said.
“One hectare returns about K500 a fortnight after 18 months. I think members of parliament should help this sort of initiative and try to alleviate the hardships that our people experience.”