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Small scale business groups operating under the One Village One Product (Ovop) concept have started productions and some have already captured export markets.
Ovop national coordinator Bruce Munthali said on Friday one group has exported 600 tonnes of cotton lint to Singapore in Asia.
Munthali said other groups are exporting groundnut flour to South Africa and Zimbabwe while some are expected to find markets in America through the Agoa trade window.
“We have the market for our products out there but our problem in Malawi is that we usually do not maintain our production capacity. Buyers don’t like supplying them sporadically,” he said.
Munthali said Ovop is trying to solve this problem by making sure that groups have more people to allow them meet market demands consistently.
Ovop is an approach for community development that enables local people to use domestic resources and cultures to create products that can be marketed both locally and internationally.
Some of the enterprises being promoted under the initiative include furniture making, garment manufacturing, cotton print production, fruit processing, daily farming, fish farming, poultry rearing and small scale mining.
The concept is also expected to develop capacity and skills in communities to undertake various products—a key element in achieving the community’s own continued creativity and independence.
Last week, the Ovop secretariat launched the first training for Ovop groups on financial management, business development and loan payment in Blantyre.
Ovop has already disbursed about K6.3 million to 20 groups for various business projects and approved K15 million for 14 more groups, according to Munthali.
The loan portfolio for the initiative is estimated at K600 million and will attract an interest rate of 10 percent annually over a three-year period.
Munthali said the Ovop board has received 178 new project proposals which, he said, the enthusiasm people have for the concept.
Ovop board member Martin Kansichi, who opened the workshop, said Malawi should regard the initiative as a vehicle for economic growth and development.
“People with skills should be helped to prosper and that is the objective of Ovop,” said Kansichi who is also president of Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a private sector representative body.
Meanwhile, Munthali said plans to establish supermarkets in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu to provide markets for products manufactured by the business groups “are in their advanced stages.”
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