The Abau District Development Authority (DDA) has presented K1 million to the Women’s Micro Bank (Mama Bank) to support the district development through Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) Credit Guarantee Scheme. Mama Bank Chief Executive Officer Mr. Gunanidhi Das stated that Mama Bank signed the MoA with Abau District Development Authority some months ago and now they will make it happen by receiving the funding of K1million from the district. Mr. Das said the agreement that was signed is a credit guarantee scheme which is basically the support given by the district development authority to go towards supporting MSMEs and SMEs in the formal SME sector in the district. “These will flourish the economic activities in the district and with that the cheque presentation today will start the journey of the MSME Credit Guarantee scheme. In the credit guarantee scheme we are looking at a minimum of K500 loan to K50,000 loan so the little formal MSME and SME can benefit. "The process includes looking at the MSMEs and SMEs to see if they are informal and formal and how best they can meet the loan requirements,” Mr. Das said. He emphasized that any of these MSMEs and SMEs from the district who wish to get the loan must meet requirements, get authorization from the district and have a proper plan to invest the loan they receive. “The loan given is not free money and Mama Bank will provide financial training to these MSMEs and SMEs on how they can utilize the loan they get,” he added. Member for Abau District Sir Puka Temu said he is excited about this partnership with Mama Bank because access to credit schemes is very important to rural people. Sir Puka said that he wants to see the credit scheme work out for his people, and out of the sixty thousand people of Abau district, at least a few should be successful from this credit scheme and have big businesses in the future. He spoke on the importance of access to credit by rural people and how people should know the power of money and how to make money work for us.