Key People: Thomas Lubari and Joyce Gaba
There are some encouraging signs with this loan programme and so we thought it important to provide an update.
As you will recall, support for this programme stopped in 2017. Over the years significant amounts of money have been provided to support the programme and enable it to continue. The last report tells the story that, of that quite significant amount (possibly in the order of USD$20,000 or more since 2007) only about US$3,000-4,000 can be accounted for within the remaining loan programme. That is still the position. The reasons why so much of this programme's funds became irretrievable have already been documented.
But the programme is still continuing fortnightly in exactly the same way as previously. The group size was shrunk by Joyce to 15 committed and faithful payers but over the last year they have added another six as resources have grown slightly and there have been some further funds to lend out.
The loan term has also changed from six months to four months with the interest rate remaining at 10% per cycle so the loan pool is growing again.
These 21 are faithful. On occasion they will miss a fortnightly payment because of school fees or a medical emergency but it is made up in the following fortnight. Once the funds are repaid each fortnight, and there is enough available to be lent out again, one of the existing beneficiaries will access a further loan, typically between 300,000 and 500,000 UGX (US$80-135).
The beneficiaries do a range of small businesses. We interviewed Filda at her stall in the market. Given how humble the stall is, she was extremely grateful for the loan programme and the boost that it gave. It enabled her to go to the wholesalers, purchase her goods and then break them down to sell in smaller quantities in the Njeru market. Her story is below. Other beneficiaries do tailoring, charcoal and similar businesses and these businesses seem to be doing OK even in these tough times.
We have asked Joyce to give us a list of the existing beneficiaries so we can have an idea of the loan sizes that each has.
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Augom Filda is the mother of Nancy who graduated from the vocational training scholarship programme (UGA04c) and is now working in Njeru as a laboratory technician.
Filda has been a long term member of the Njeru loan programme. She gets a loan of 400,000 to 500,000 UGX (US$110-$135) and repays this within a four-month cycle. She gets produce from the wholesale market across the Nile river from Njeru and sells her produce at a small stall within Njeru market.
Filda and her husband have five children. Her husband gets intermittent work in mechanical and building jobs. Now that Nancy is working, despite her small salary she is able to contribute to buying food for the family. With the profits from Filda’s business she is able to pay school fees, buy food and keep a running capital to maintain her business.
Most of the time she is able to make the repayments on time however there are times (especially when school fees are due) where she has to delay but she has been consistent with paying back her loans. She would like to be able to access a larger loan as the capital would help her to have a greater variety of produce and have a better income from her business. She also finds that sometimes it is difficult to make a profit, especially when the costs of produce go high, or she loses some of the produce (e.g. vegetables going bad before she is able to sell them). Despite this she is very grateful to be able to access the loan as it has boosted her income so that she can support her family.
We still see potential in this loan programme and would like to consider it for a boost if it stays stable for another year or so. The boost would not be significant but would be a reflection of the fact that they have now made it work and the programme has a future. Our thinking would be around US$3,000-5,000.