Agreement on rural micro-lending

KONGALEND Financial Services and Project Hope Namibia have signed an agreement on financing for rural communities.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Windhoek on Friday, Kongalend chairman Tshoombe Ndadi said the agreement will ‘give practical expression to the principles of financial inclusion’.The agreement between Kongalend and Project Hope concentrates on rural economic development cooperation and is aimed at providing long-term means to access the micro-finance which Kongalend extends to those meeting credit qualifying criteria.The means of accessing credit have been designed to improve the lives of Project Hope beneficiaries. These are rural communities in the Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto regions.Project Hope focuses on family and community members looking after orphaned and vulnerable children, TB patients and young adolescents’ groups with the purpose of delivering health education and sustainable economic interventions.This includes the provision of financial literacy training and the extension of micro-finance methodology in the form of village savings and loans to organised rural communities with whom the organisation works to enable these communities to establish income-generating micro enterprises.However because these interventions run on a fixed three-year programme cycle, the MoU paves the way for Kongalend and Project Hope to work together to extend financial support to the more than 6 000 Namibians benefitting under Project Hope’s 2011-2013 support programme.Also speaking at the signing ceremony was Steven Neri, Project Hope Namibia chief, who said that his organisation aims to strengthen the extended family system in Namibia through a range of initiatives. Neri said that Project Hope is looking to provide its members with links to other services once its development work was completed, and added that the agreement with Kongalend was just such an initiative which would ensure that their work is carried forward.Ndadi said that after 22 years of political independence the majority of Namibians ‘do not enjoy the peace of mind and financial freedom made possible by access to finance to engage in sustainable economic activity that will improve their lives and livelihoods’.The majority of the communities and individuals with which Project Hope works are either unemployed or in informal employment and are unable to build up individual credit track records with conventional banking institutions.As a result Kongalend is expected to structure special credit products which are designed to provide micro-enterprise loans ranging from N$1000 to N$30 000 to beneficiaries of Project Hope’s Village Savings and Loan groups to finance the start-up and expansion of viable income-generating small businesses.Ndadi said that Kongalend have already financed 11 loans to the value of N$95 700.

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