Suchergebnisse

Uganda, where 85 % of the population live in rural areas, has experienced a rapid rise of rural and microfinance over the last ten years. There is a pronounced gender awareness in public policities and programs. Best practices have been mastered by institutions in the formal and the NGO sector. In the latter, women dominate as borrowers. Yet, as the vast majority still have no access to deposit and credit services, expansion of outreach remains as the biggest challenge. Rapid expansion of sustainable financial services to women is best achieved in Uganda not through women-only programs, but by a broad range of financial institutions with unbiased services to both women and men, the poor and the near-poor. NGO-supported microfinance institutions (MFIs), through group lending up to a ceiling, have provided start-up finance, particularly for women; but this has added borrower transaction costs and restricted growth. In Centenary Rural Development Bank and some MFIs, voluntary savings and individual lending to enterprising men and women have fostered sustainable farm and nonfarm business growth beyond the poverty line, creating at the same time employment opportunities for the very poor. Under the prevailing conditions of a conducive policy environment, diversified agricultural and microenterprise opportunities, good practices in agriculture and microfinance, and effective agency coordination, the most effective means of donor assistance are equity investments in rural banks to extend their branch network and staff; equity investments in MFIs to transform into regulated deposit-taking institutions; support to banks and MFIs for staff selection and training; the facilitation of linkages between MFIs and banks; and the development of gender-sensitive strategies in different culture areas of Uganda based on the differential analysis of customer information in each institution?s management information system.

Rajwa is a 50 years old widow in the area of Karak, with five children. Her husband died 10 years ago. In January 2000, she received a collateral-free loan of JD 2,100 (US$ 3,000) from the ACC/IFAD Income Diversification Project, repayable over 8 years. She bought 20 sheep, which have increased to 24, and went into dairy production. By September 2001, she had sold only 2 kg of goat butter and 6 kg of jameed. Everybody produces jameed and butter, there is no market, she says. She has made two payments of JD 30 each, which covers less than the interest due. ACC keeps writing letters and visiting her, but to no avail. With a loan of JD 200 for 8 months, less than one-tenth of the actual loan amount and period, Rajwa could have purchased the equipment and bought milk for dairy production instead of raising sheep. This would have given her the opportunity of testing the market and her entrepreneurial skills at a manageable risk. Now she is stuck with a bad loan and ineligible for another to go into a more profitable line of business. It was the loan terms imposed on her that made her start big - and fail big. She would like to apply for a loan to buy a sewing machine at a cost JD 120; but she is a defaulter, and the amount is too small to be financed from an ACC loan.