How to access Women Enterprise Fund
What you need to know:
- Ms Ruth Randa, the manager in charge of marketing and communications,says the fund has been re-engineered from manual to digital.
- She also notes that the digitisation process is in its final stages and women should be able to access the fund in a couple of weeks.
The Women Enterprise Fund is one of the institutions under the Ministry of Gender and Affirmative Action that was created to offer accessible and affordable credit to women. However, despite being in existence for more than 15 years, most women still don’t know of its existence, and many of those who do have no idea how to access the kitty.
Following the National Treasury allocation of Sh182.8 million to the fund for the 2023/24 financial year, Nation.Africa spoke to Ruth Randa, the manager in charge of marketing and communications for Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) to explain how women can benefit from the programme.
Ms Randa says the fund has been re-engineered from manual to digital in line with President William Ruto’s promise on digital inclusion. She also notes that the digitisation process is in its final stages and women should be able to access the fund in a couple of weeks.
Below are the qualifications and the process.
Eligibility
The fund is only available to women groups with 10 to 30 members. The group has a guarantor system where each member guarantees each other. All members must have a Safaricom line that has been in operation for at least six months and active M-Pesa usage for at least three months.
Individual members will be vetted to inform credit scores, which determine a group’s loan limit. Members' lines must be registered in their names as captured in their identity cards. Individual members must not have outstanding, or have defaulted on repayment of, Hustler Fund.
Terms
The facility has a savings requirement that five per cent of the loan be remitted into the group’s savings account. Ms Randa says this is to encourage a savings culture. There is an administration fee of 2.5 per cent and an interest rate of 6.0 per cent of the loan amount. During the pilot phase, the loan repayment period is between one and three months.
Application
The fund can be accessed by dialling *254# on your Safaricom line, which will present the user with the Financial Inclusion Fund Platform. The chairperson of the women’s group should then proceed to register the officials of the group and members. Once this is done, the system gives them an option to complete the group and they will be able to access the loan module where they can borrow.
Loan amounts range from Sh50,000 to Sh750,000, but at the first application, all groups begin with the minimum amount. Once a loan is approved by the system, it is deposited into the group’s wallet and members will agree on how much each of them requires.
Once the group comes to a consensus, the chairperson will send out loan requests for the loan applicant; this must be approved by two officials and three random group members.
During the approval process, the system automatically sends notifications, which must be acted upon. Where there are delays or lack of response, the cycle will not be complete and the process will take longer than expected.
Once the loan is approved, the system generates a completion date for each member and would then issue reminders via SMS for applicants to make payments. Repayment is also done through the group wallet so that all repayments are captured in the group statement and each member can track their repayment progress.
According to Ms Randa, the fund has disbursed about Sh26.4 billion to over two million women since its inception in 2008. With the digital system being rolled out, she hopes that a lot more women will be able to benefit.
