1,000 Microloans for Rural Women in East Africa

With your generous donations we started the WMI loan program eight years ago with twenty loans. This summer we issued our twenty thousandth loan. Total lending is now over $3million. The numbers may sound small by U.S. banking standards, but they are certainly impressive when you realize our average loan is only $150. It’s even more impressive when you learn our average borrower has been earning less than $130 a month when she joins our program. For her, a $150 loan is not a micro-loan; it’s huge! So, why would she borrow so much money? The answer is simple: working capital is the key to increasing business profits, which increases household income and living standards.

We collect borrower information on every loan we make, and every summer our interns analyze the data and prepare Fact Books to show the loan program’s impact on improving household living conditions and empowering women to become financially independent.

We look very carefully at the data for trends. We continue to see a rapid change in a borrower’s average income once they enter our loan program. Whereas 99.7% of all borrowers earned less than $1,560 per year when they entered the program, that figure drops to less than 3.7% in just two years. Our average borrower more than doubles her earnings in the two years she is in our program.

The loan enables her to kick-start an existing or new business. Most businesses are agricultural or provide necessities of daily living, such as other foodstuffs, tailoring, used clothing, and medicine, and are local in market scope. As her profits grow, she can expand the business, add to savings, which greatly reduces the negative impact of emergencies or unforeseen expenses, and improve household living standard. In Uganda, where education is a top priority, 75% of the women surveyed said they spent their profits on school fees as an investment in their children’s future.

Most exciting is that we are seeing generational change. We tasked our Buyobo, Uganda summer interns with interviewing the children of borrowers, several of whom have now completed their university educations, to get their impressions. It’s amazing how each one chose to talk about the impact the WMI loan program has had on their mother, their community, and, especially, their own opportunities. East Africa isn’t a place where you are given a job – it’s a place where you take the skills you have and make your own job. Watch the video and you will feel really confident that these kids will succeed at whatever they do!

Links:

• Video: WMI Multigeneration Impact - 2015