Indego Africa & Microfinance

Rwanda is saturated with microfinance institutions, yet, from the perspective of the women at our partner cooperatives, information is hard to come by. As a result, and in line with Indego Africa's commitment to enabling our partners to make confident, independent, and informed business decisions, we recently conducted a survey of seven microfinance programs and shared our findings with the women. The women then invited the three in which they were most interested to come to the cooperatives and present their programs.

Crammed five deep, the majority with only a banana leaf mat as protection from the cement floor, the women listened respectfully to each presentation. However, when the first representative concluded, Therese Mutekereze, cooperative president, leaned forward and peered at the young man over the top of her spectacles (pictured right). He may not have realized he was about to get an earful, but the rest of us did! Therese led the charge each time, but several other members jumped right in with their own questions—ranging from inquiries about interest rates and hidden costs to those focused on lending requirements for individuals and cooperatives.

When the day’s presentations concluded the women entered a lively discussion among themselves about the relative merits of the various programs and their problems with microfinance in general. The women expressed concern that certain institutions lent only to those who were friends of the loan officers, while others repayment periods were too short and interest rates too high. They also wondered whether their cooperative was ready to take out such a loan when they lacked an idea of how they would use the money and access to market information that would give them an idea of possible future profit. They came to the decision that microfinance is not for them at the moment, but that they would reconsider when they had better developed business ideas. We affirmed our commitment to assisting them to access better market information to help them understand their business and how to make it grow.

Increasing access to information, whether about local financial resources or their own cooperative sales, is a major part of Indego’s mission to achieve sustainable business development. It’s not our mission to make decisions for our cooperatives, but to give them access to the knowledge they need to make decisions for themselves.

- Amity

In NYC and want to learn more about Indego Africa and microfinance? Two great events next week:

MICROFINANCE & THE LAW: EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH INNOVATION, NYU Law, Monday, Nov. 16th, 6:00-7:30 (including speaker Ben Stone, Senior VP & GC).

MICROFINANCE: SOCIAL ENTERPRISE & THE LAW, Columbia Law School, Tuesday, Nov. 17th, 5:30-9:00 (including speaker Matt Mitro, Founder & President).

For more info, email ben.stone@indegoafrica.org.