By KETRA KALUNGA
THE church has attributed the clergy’s inability to access the Covid-19 empowerment fund to the lack of adequate information needed to qualify for the fund.
The government released a 50 Million Kwacha empowerment fund aimed at stimulating the economy and ensuring the sustenance of the church and its activities but it’s concerned with the clergy’s inability to access the fund.
The Bishops Council of Zambia (BCZ) however says most of the clergy lacked relevant information on how to access the empowerment fund.
BCZ general secretary, Abel Kaela said in an interview the government should have engaged officials from the ministry of national guidance and religious affairs to disseminate information to churches on accessing the fund.
Bishop Kaela said a number of the clergy up to date lacked the relevant information about the processes to follow for them to qualify for the fund.
“The government should have taken up the task of dissemination information to churches instead of delegating the responsibility to the church mother bodies, Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), and the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), he said.
Bishop Kaela feels that most of the clergy would have benefited from the fund if they had been given the right information on how to access the empowerment fund.
He has urged the government to ensure that they disseminate adequate information to the churches, religious and faith-based organizations on how they could access the fund and be able to sustain themselves amidst the Covid-10 pandemic.
“Most of the clergy don’t have information on how they can have this fund,” he said.
