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{
    "id": 1026704,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1026704/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 420,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mwea, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Josphat Kabinga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13441,
        "legal_name": "Josphat Kabinga Wachira",
        "slug": "josphat-kabinga-wachira-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me a chance to contribute to the Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill (No. 2). I also take this chance to congratulate the new Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Finance and Planning, Hon. (Ms.) Gladys Wanga, whom we are sure is equal to the task. This particular initiative comes at the right time. It is overdue in this country. We have been talking about supporting businesses in order to grow the economy. This Bill comes in handy for our Government to support three major areas in our economy. Number one is innovation. We are expecting the young men of this country to come up with innovative ideas that can find their way into financing institutions for funding. We are looking at revival of some of the businesses that have gone under because of the pandemic that we are going through. There are enterprises that are very promising, but because of the challenges that the country is going through, some of them have had to close down. We are also looking at expansion of various small, micro and medium enterprises including the opportunities that are provided by the recently passed law on warehousing. It comes in handy in supporting the farming sector. We do expect that once this Bill passes and is operationalised, we will be receiving reports especially on how our enterprises are graduating from one category to another, that is, from micro to small and small to medium enterprises. We are also expecting that through this initiative of credit guarantee, we will see some stabilization of interest rates that are offered by various financing institutions, especially now that we have de-capped the interest rates that were put in the Banking Act. We do expect that there will be no exploitation especially from the micro finances. The micro finances in this country have been very exploitative to borrowers. They accommodate their weaknesses in terms of security and qualifications to borrow money, but in return, they exploit them. We have borrowers who will have paid more than 200 per cent of the amount that they borrowed by the time they clear their loans. I hope this Bill comes in to correct some of those shortcomings in our economy. We are also hoping that once this Bill is passed, the CS responsible will come up with strict operationalization regulations that will, among others, safeguard the scheme from systemic malpractices, exploitative lending institutions, and ingenuity on the part of the borrowers. We are also hoping that there will be affirmative action to favour our youth, women, and people living with disabilities."
}