Microfinancing Partners In Africa

Causes: Economic Development, International, International Economic Development, Microfinance

Mission: Microfinancing partners in africa (mpa) provides grants for the strengthening and expansion of microfinancing programs in africa to empower those living in extreme poverty to lift themselves up with dignity through access to financial services and education.

Programs: Kenya jamii bora project is a microfinancing cooperative with over 10,000 members. The keys to success are that members select their own group of five, start with saving even a small amount, participate in weekly meetings to discuss their loans, and support each other as they successfully pay back the loans. As members pay back the loans, which have a fixed interest rate and payback period, they become eligible for larger loans to start and support their income generating activities. Jamii bora offers health, life, and disaster insurance coverages, a sobriety program, business skills training, education, and second language classes for english and swahili. Microfinancing partners provides grants to support the modest salaries of the tumaini, social workers who reach out to those program participants in the greatest need.

uganda cow project - through the diocese organization caritas maddo (masaka diocese organization) families join the program in village groups and receive training to prepare for receiving a cow. The participating families prepare their farms (typically one acre) to be self sustaining and able to survive the rainy season. The project requires that the families invest in their farms by building a zero-grazing shed for the cow, by planting sufficient grass to feed the cow and by implementing sanitation requirements for the family and the cow, in order to keep the cow in good health. Once the eligibility requirements are met, the family is granted a living loan of a pregnant cow, valued at $800. Once the calf is born, a cow gives around 20 liters of milk each day. The family uses about two liters for their own consumption and sells the remainder to the caritas maddo dairy, which provides the family a small but steady income. The loan is paid back by raising the calf for 9 to 12 months, and then passing along the calf to another eligible family.

tanzania bukoba women's empowerment association(buwea) project helps women to find ways to become financially self sustaining and guides them as they organize in small groups to pursue income generating activities. Microfinancing partners in africa supports buwea's revolving loan fund, which provides microloans to its members. Although the revolving fund's loans may be used for a variety of income generating purposes, our emphasis is on the revolving loans for the soy project. Because dairy cows are scarce in the bukoba area, the buwea uses soy to make soy milk. Loans from the revolving fund are used to increase the soy farm's productive acreage, rent tractors and drivers during the planting and harvesting seasons, build a two room factory to store the soy milk machines, and to fund employment of several women to work the fields and in the factory. As profits are realized, the proceeds are used to pay back loans and make funds available to others. Mpa also supports a daycare facility and school for the children of the buwea members and the expansion of the buwea program into neighboring areas.

in 2014, mpa began a partnership with the missionary sisters of the precious blood (cps) with the goal of providing women and men in poverty access to funding and training to start self-sustaining small businesses. In 2017 cps continued to pursue this goal by hosting fourteen microfinancing trainings in kenya, tanzania and the democratic republic of the congo to help stimulate entrepreneurial efforts such as three projects to sew and sell school uniforms and one to purchase a sunflower seed press to make and sell the oil. Small loans have been provided to start businesses using small self-help lending circles of women and men, mentored by the sisters of cps. The fourteen villages and surrounding communities are being directly impacted by these microfinancing efforts.