The Ndola City Council has announced that it has commenced consolidating the various Constituency Development Fund (CDF) funding applications and proposals made by the residents living or operating in the four constituencies of Ndola.
Government has increased the amount of the CDF from K1.6 million to K25.7 million per Constituency.
The Fund has since evolved with an expanded scope and increased budget allocation with increased emphasis on enhanced community participation in determining local development priorities.
The expanded scope of the CDF covers three (3) specific areas namely; Community Projects; Youth, Women and Community Empowerment and Secondary Boarding School and Skills Development Bursaries.
Ndola City Council Public Relations Manager Rebecca Mushota said the various proposals and applications have been submitted by the Ward Development Committees (WDC) to the council for onward submission to the CDF Committees.
Ndola City has four constituencies namely Ndola Central, Bwana Mkubwa, Kabushi and Chifubu.
Ms. Mushota said the response from the public has been positive because about 3,000 applications have been received from the residents in Ndola.
For Kawama Ward, the council had extended the deadline to Tuesday, April 19, 2022.
“The Ndola City Council is consolidating the various Constituency Development Fund (CDF) funding applications and proposals made by the residents living or operating in the four constituencies of Ndola. The various proposals and applications were submitted by the Ward Development Committees (WDC) to the Ndola City Council for onward submission to the CDF Committees. The four constituencies are Ndola Central, Bwana Mkubwa, Kabushi and Chifubu.Following the deadline for receiving applications, the Department of City Planning is now consolidating the applications,” Ms. Mushota said.
“For Kawama Ward, the deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 19, 2022.The response from the public has been positive as about 3,000 applications have been received from the residents in Ndola. The applications are for education bursaries, community projects, loans and grants for individual businesses, women and youth groups,” she said.
Ms. Mushota added:”The CDF committees, save for Kabushi, have started sitting and are scheduled to complete their selection process by the end of next week. The Kabushi CDF committee is yet to be established. Selected community projects proposals would then be forwarded to the technical appraisal committee for cost assessment.”
She confirmed that the Ndola City Council has so far received K25, 734, 780.20 CDF from the central Government for the four constituencies.
“A list of successful applicants and community project proposals would then be submitted to the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development for approval. The Ndola City Council has so far received K25, 734, 780.20 CDF from the Government for the four constituencies. The Council initially received K2,540, 000 for the first phase of bursaries with each constituency receiving K635,000 on February 8,2022.An amount of K20, 656, 410.32 was received on March 31, 2022 for developmental projects with each constituency receiving K5, 164, 102.58 and K2, 538, 369.88 was received on April 1, 2022 for the second phase of bursaries with each constituency receiving K634, 592.47,” she said.
According to the New Dawn Government, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) has been identified as a major tool to take resources closer to the people.
The CDF was first established in 1995 to support micro-community projects as part of the wider decentralization and local development policy.
The fundamental objective was to provide resources to bridge the financing gap arising from non-existence sources of funds to finance micro-community led projects in all the Constituencies across the Country.
And in the meantime the money is not safe. Is there anybody actually monitoring these funds? Or will we find out in a few weeks time that all the funds have mysteriously “disappeared”?