Women Financial Intermediary Partners receives Sh250m ministry funding

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Government has released Sh250 million in seed capital to a new savings co-operative that aims to advance loans to women.

The Sacco, Women Financial Intermediary Partners, otherwise known as Sacco Lending, is the brainchild of the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, and will be joining the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) as another pool from which women can get financing.

Gender Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said in a statement that as opposed to the current situation where women can only borrow Sh750,000 from affirmative action funds such as WEF, they will now be able to borrow up to Sh5 million from the new Sacco, either as individuals or groups.

“The Sacco has already attracted seven women groups who have joined as members. It will provide affordable credit to women in small and medium businesses,” said Ms Kariuki.

She said the Sacco would bring together women from all over the country with the aim of helping them become financially secure so they can support their families.

The Uwezo fund, another lending pool modelled on affirmative action, has so far disbursed Sh5.5 billion to 61,675 groups and reached 920,162 beneficiaries, according to data from the ministry.

Group projects

Data further shows that through the National Government Affirmative Action Fund, Sh5,123,800,170 has so far been disbursed to counties to support group projects and programmes.

The projects include bursaries for school children, civic education, women economic empowerment and value addition initiatives.

In addition, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund has so far disbursed loans amounting to Sh11.9 billion through its diverse products, benefiting a total of 904,830 youths across the country.

Kariuki said the number of groups who have benefited from the funds are 80,954, with a total of 1,438,85 beneficiaries.