Chieftainess Nyanje of the Nsenga people in Sinda has expressed worry over the level at which her subjects borrow money from lending institutions and individuals who claim interest.

In interview, the traditional leader observed that unreasonable borrowing, commonly known as Kaloba, had brought misery and poverty among families.

“We need to borrow money with sense but it’s unfortunate that people don’t weigh themselves when collecting money from people. You find that someone borrows K5,000, an amount which they can’t pay back because they are poor such that even borrowing them K1,000 still won’t achieve anything. Surely, most people borrow money without a concrete purpose and at the end it attracts problems to them” she said.

She said it was sad that some people even travelled to Mozambique to borrow money.

“Some of these people even go to Mozambique to borrow money. I am told if you borrow K5,000 you have to pay back K10,000. Imagine! And they go ahead and when they are in trouble they come to me to help, how can I help when they crossed beyond their limit? It is sad that people don’t reason before borrowing and we are in problems because of such,” Chieftainess Nyanje said.

She appealed to money lenders to weigh people before lending them money to avoid causing problems.

“I think even lenders are at fault because they are able to see the poverty some people have even the way they look and appear but they end up lending such people more money which they can’t manage to pay back and at the end they take them to courts or police which is bad because some even if you take them wherever they won’t manage to pay back because poverty is what they live on,” said Chieftainess Nyanje.