AGCOM Distributes Over K1 Billion in Mangochi
The Agricultural Commercialisation (AGCOM) Project has now distributed grants amounting to over K1 billion to small business groups in Mangochi alone, according to the district's agriculture office.
Mangochi Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), Owen Kumwenda, disclosed this Thursday during a Cheque presentation to Zankhalango coorperative, which has received about K128 million kwacha.
"This is the 10th group in the district to benefit from AGCOM grants and in total as a district, we have now received over K1 billion," said Kumwenda.
The CAO, said is very certain that the group will manage the grant, saying most groups who has benefited from the grants are doing well, except one where some members mismanaged and were arrested.
Chairperson for the group, Janet Eliya, said the money will be used to construct a warehouse and procure a machine that will produce products from Baobab fruits, like Baobab oil, juice and other products.
"We already stated producing a number of products from baobab fruits like oil, but we were using machines from another company based in Lilongwe which is costly," explained Eliya.
Apart from the factory warehouse and machines, Eliya said the group will also procure a vehicle for easy transportation of law material and final products.
AGCOM Project is a Malawi Government flagship programme for
transforming smallholder agriculture from mostly subsistence to
commercial.