Female fish traders in Nsanje District have asked duty-bearers and well-wishers for loans to boost their trade.

Speaking in an interview on Saturday at Bitilinyu fishing ground along Dinde River in Traditional Authority (T/A) Ndamera in the district, Maria Gilini, a fish trader, said lack of capital was the reason their businesses were not growing.

She said: “Yes, we buy fish at good prices from fishers but we are not progressing because we have little capital.

“We need appeal to money lending institutions to think on how best they can empower us with loans so that we can buy large quantities of fish to sell in big markets in towns.”

Women process their fish at Dinde River in Nsanje District

Gilini said last time she bought fish at K500 000 and travelled to Limbe in Blantyre where she realised K600 000 profit.

“I repaid the loan at a high interest rate. Currently, I am now operating business with a small capital for the past six years,” she said.

In a separate interview, Nsanje district fisheries officer Silli Laban asked the women to form cooperatives to secure loans as a group and not as individuals.

He said: “We have 60 people from Ndamera who formed a cooperative comprising 20 fishers, 20 fish processors and 20 buyers.

“We trained them on business management and submitted documents to the Ministry of Trade and Industry to get a certificate

 for the group.”

Silli said with the certificate, the cooperative will be able to obtain loans from banks and other lending institutions.

With funding from the African Development Bank, the Department of Fisheries is implementing Sustainable Fisheries Aquaculture Development and Watershed Management Project in the district.

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