Mboga Safi Women's Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Mboga Safi Women's Group group, consisting of Wilkista Agutu, Gabreil Opiyo, James Wachira, Everline Akuku, Philister Adhiambo, Celemetina Juma, Janet Ayuma, Christine Nangira by Opportunity International- Wedco Ltd. in Kenya. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 10 months, Opportunity International- Wedco Ltd. will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Update by Zack Turner, Kiva Fellow with OI-Wedco in Kenya:

I met with the members of Mboga Safi during their weekly meeting in Busia town. Unfortunately, Wikista, the group representative profiled for the Kiva posting, was unavailable.

As we approached the small tin roofed/mud floored meeting venue for the group Slyvester, the OI-Wedco loan officer, told me that Mboga had been the best group in his portfolio before the post-election crisis.

He informed me that all of the group members were deeply affected by the violent crisis that occurred after the disputed presidential election in Kenya earlier this year. During these months violence made business and travel extremely dangerous and economic activity halted in much of Kenya. The members were unable to conduct business in January and February. Many members had damaged to their establishments and others lost their stock to looters as well. After peace was brokered the prices of goods and transportation had risen significantly, which cut into all the members potential for profits.

The significant setback occurred when Martin, the deputy secretary, (not picture in Kiva posting) took 90,000 schillings of group members money to buy stock in Eldoret and transport it back with his vehicle. The members pooled their money to buy in bulk and get better rates from wholesalers. After purchasing nearly $1400 worth of goods he was stopped by thugs who took the entire stock.

As a result, the members of Mboga Safi Women’s group are struggling to repay their loan. The group is mostly women who sell produce and other cash crops in village markets.

OI-Wedco rescheduled the groups loan by increasing the loan term and reducing their weekly repayments. Nevertheless, this hasn’t helped enough. With the help of Slyvester the group recently applied for a “top-up” additional small loan with OI-Wedco. Slyvester says that the produce business can be really profitable in this area and could stabilize the group.

Special Notes:

This loan was posted mid-cycle on Kiva for extraordinary reasons. After peace and stability was restored, Opportunity International-Wedco chose to reschedule the loans of groups impacted by the post-election crisis. Kiva offered to help by posting the groups that were rescheduled, thus this extended update.

A self-help group is a legal community of people that band together to provide collateral. In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a 'group guarantee'. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults. For the Kiva posting, we select one member to represent the group with their story and business.

For more regarding the post-election crisis please start here:

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/09/09/brief-summary-of-the-post-election-crisis-in-kenya/