KIJIJI BENKI (VILLAGE BANK) LENDS A HELPING HAND
Rose Amanyo is a mother of 6 children and the primary income generator of her home (her husband is a pastor at one of the village churches). We first met Rose in October 2008 in our first trip to Kager, and identified her as a very enterprising and hardworking woman. She makes ropes by hand out of sissel (cactus) leaves and sells them in towns nearby and faraway from Kager. She participates with 15 women in the village in a “merry-go-round” women’s group, a traditional African model for women to save and share monies together.
Rose with her sissel leaves for rope making
On July 21st, Rose became the first recipient of a Kijiji Benki microloan (Swahili for “village bank”), the newest program of the Jubilee Village Project. Rose received a microloan in the amount of KSHS 7,500 (US = $100) and will use these monies to take ropes she makes, as well as fruits and vegetables she buys wholesale in Kager, to sell in Kisii (28 kilometers away). She will then take the profits from these sales and bring back rice, beans, tomatoes and millet to sell in Kager. Rose will pay back this loan over a one-year period (at a 1% monthly borrowing rate) and plans to be able to make a profit of KSHS 11,000 (US = $147). Rose will use these profits to help pay school fees for her children and to expand her business opportunities. If Rose pays her loan back on-time each month, she will also earn another KSHS 471 as 50% of her interest will be repaid to her as a reward for on-time payment.
Below is a report from Carolyne Kayando, Economic Development Champion, from her meeting with Rose in which she presented the loan:
“I am please to let you know that last week we met with Rose, our first Kijiji Benki lendee. I must honorably say that it was a new day and hope for Rose. She had been waiting for this time, and it did come to pass. I explained everything to Rose, on how the loan works, the repayment period and all the finer details she needed. She promised to work hard and repay back the loan on the agreed period. The River has begun to flow in this section as well and I am hopeful you are going to work on the others. We are trying very hard to see how best we can have more people trained on the micro-loan program and how to write simple business plans.”
Rose with her finished rope
The immediate goal is to expand the Kijiji Benki microloan program to ten (10) other lendees by the end of 2009. The Kijiji Benki program was designed and is administered by Brian Burgess, Economic Development Global Partner. It was designed borrowing principles and templates from several other proven microcredit programs from around the world. With simple loans ranging from $50 to $300, microloans are designed to spur entrepreneurship for those individuals who lack collateral, steady employment and access to traditional credit and working capital. Microcredit is a financial innovation that is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In that country, it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty.
He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done.
Proverbs 19:17
We are excited for the launching of this program in Kager village. What we take for granted in the United States is far out of reach for most people in the developing world. It is also amazing to think that amounts that might get spent in one weekend by an American family can provide enough working capital to make a difference in an entire family’s life in Kenya. Through the Kijiji Benki program, it truly will be possible to live out the JVP’s vision of “changing the world, one village at a time.”
Ned