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Partner description:

Jibu (meaning “solution” in Swahili) is a social enterprise tackling the drinking water and unemployment crises by training local workers to be successful social entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs, about half of whom are young women, are quickly expanding a network of locally-owned drinking water franchises in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. Each one provides affordable, safe and clean water to their underserved communities.

Jibu entrepreneurs are able to offer affordable, clean drinking water by setting up filtration systems tailored to each community, based on available water sources. Customers pay a bottle deposit and then exchange an empty bottle for a new, full bottle, avoiding any middleman markups.

A unique lending approach:

Jibu uses Kiva financing to provide credit to entrepreneurs to launch a franchise, or purchase water bottle inventory and delivery vehicles once established, allowing franchisees to quickly scale up their businesses. Loans are repaid from profits on bottle sales.