By News Desk 
Lumezi Town Council has empowered all the 2025 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) loans and grants beneficiaries through financial literacy training.
The financial literacy training attracted representatives of all 63 clubs and cooperatives that will receive grants empowerment and 31 successful loan beneficiaries in Lumezi Constituency.
During the financial literacy training, three representatives from each of the 63 clubs and cooperatives namely, Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary were invited to attend the training in order to inculcate responsible use of the funds once disbursed into the beneficiaries bank accounts.
According to the Council’s Public Relations Unit, a director or representative of the registered business receiving the CDF loans were also invited to the training particularly to emphasize the need to repay the loans in time in order for other residents of Lumezi to benefit from the revolving fund.
“Under the CDF grants, beneficiaries will receive varying empowerment of between K30,000 to K40,000 while loan beneficiaries will receive between K50,000 to K200,000 to venture into various businesses covering poultry, stationery, winter farming, logistics and buying and selling of grains among others.
“And during the financial literacy training, Indo Zambia Bank Lundazi branch made presentations on budgeting, financial management financial, procurement, records keeping, plan reviews, marketing and savings among others,” it said.
The bank went further to explain details of the loan agreement form to CDF loan beneficiaries; terms of the loan, repayment period, interest rate, penalties for monthly late deposits and bank charges.
Other presenters during the training were; Lumezi Town Council Fisheries, Livestock and Veterinary Services Department and the Council’s Department of Community Development.
The financial literacy training is a necessary undertaking by the Local Authority before the empowerment funds can be disbursed to beneficiaries as a measure to ensure accountability and prudent utilization of the public resources by all recipients of the empowerment.
Cecilia Chiluba 
Joseph Tembo