Director of Pension and Financial Sector Policy Division in the ministry of finance, Davie Wilima has told Zodiak Online Tuesday it is the wish of government to ensure that livelihoods of people in rural areas is improved through venturing into various activities.

Wilima believes that empowering the ultra-poor with resources can significantly help in improving their livelihoods.

"Government would want to see beneficiaries of various social protection programs such as Social Cash Transfer program (SCTP) become economic reliant" said Wilima.

He made the remarks in Phalombe during the launch of a 1. 3-billion-kwacha Seed Money Disbursement to Ultra-Poor Beneficiaries under FARMSE- COMSIP project dubbed Building Sustainable Livelihood for Ultra Poor-BSLUP in Phalombe and Mulanje.

Wilima added that should the startup capital disbursed is put to good to use, government will increase the capital of the beneficiaries.

National Programs Coordinator for Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise (FARMSE) Dickson Ngwende says he is optimistic that the beneficiaries will be successful when conducting businesses of their choice since they have been equipped with skills on how they can run various businesses.

One of the beneficiaries, Febbie Machaka, a mother of five, says the start- up capital will help in improving socio economic status of the beneficiaries.

She said: "We were facing a lot of challenges, though I was doing business the capital was not enough to sustain it "

The Building Sustainable Livelihood for Ultra Poor-BSLUP challenges which is being implemented in nine districts seeks to target over 20,000 ultra-poor beneficiaries.