Nezikokolima Group

Yeko is Chairman of the Nezikokolima Group in Nkokonjeru, a rural agricultural village in the Mukono region of southeastern Uganda. She is married, 45 years old, and has six children, ages 6 to 22. Yeko also takes care of two grandchildren and her husband’s second wife’s daughter.

Yeko is a light-hearted and clever purveyor of fresh fruits and matoke, a traditional local dish made from bananas. She uses her loans from Pearl Microfinance to purchase passion fruit, sweet bananas and sweet potatos from local farmers in her village, and she sells them and the matoke in the Lugazi Food Market, seven miles away, every Tuesday and Wednesday. On a good day, Yeko will make a 20,000 Ush profit for her efforts. She invests her profits in coffee. She buys 200 kilos of whole coffee beans for 1,000 Ush per kilo, then dries, roasts and packages them for sale to a variety of retail food stores and markets in and near her village. Yeko’s husband, a home builder, spends most of his time with his other wife and does not contribute any of his income to supporting his primary family. Yeko depends on the income from her food businesses to keep her children in school and pay for living costs.

Other members of her loan group are in similar situations.



About Group Loans
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. Learn more

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