Updates from the Microfinance Project
Posted by Kaitlin Walter, Fellow
Gurrion and Veltah, the Project’s microloan Recipients, are both enrolled in SEDA’s pilot Mentoring Programme. They will be mentored by a business adviser from a private company that is contracted by SEDA for two months. They will meet with Themba Manzini, the business adviser, this coming Wednesday to begin their mentoring sessions. The Project Committee will continue to monitor and support their new businesses, the Uta Egg Farm and the Uta Chicken Project, over the entire repayment period, while Themba will help them with the business side of things. I think that the Project’s partnership with SEDA will help to ensure its sustainability in a unique way.
The Project’s Microfinance Program is for the Uta community run by community members, but SEDA’s resources and expertise will help both the Project Recipients and the Project Committee as the Program develops. SEDA has agreed to enroll all future Project microloan Recipients into Mentoring Programmes, and it envisions the Committee ultimately giving them up to five people at a time to mentor in starting small enterprises. The Recipient’s first installment payment is due at the end of March, and because of the popularity of chicken and eggs in Uta, I think that these two businesses will be successful. I will be excited to see what new ideas come up when the Committee accepts applications for its second round of microloans, and I will also be excited to see the evolution of the Project Committee. My dream is that the Project Committee will become a business itself, paying the Committee members salaries to do the hard work that they now do as volunteers. I think that this is a real possibility, and SEDA has already agreed to mentor the Committee in the process of becoming its own business in the future. We will see how this first round goes, but the sky’s the limit!
