Business savvy women strike gold from State-sponsored fund

Suleiman Mbatiah | NATION Mrs Ruth Mainye and some members of the Kabachia women’s group feed fish at one of her two ponds at Lanet in Nakuru this week. Mrs Mainye owns six fish ponds and two greenhouses, thanks to the Women Enterprise Fund.

By BILLY MUIRURI bmuiruri@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, May 27 2011 at 22:00

In Summary

• Loans help transform merry-go-rounds into money-spinning enterprises for members throughout the country

It is not easy to classify Rebecca Wangu as either a businesswoman or a farmer. She is both. On the phone, she is either speaking to customers from as far as Nairobi or to an agricultural extension officer.

Only four years ago, she was struggling to feed and educate her six children, although two were in local public schools. They are now enrolled at an academy and two are in college.

Her farming concern consisted of five beehives, 12 rabbits and a fishpond.

Today, at Kangocho village in Mathira East in Nyeri, Wangu is a kind of celebrity farmer as she is now the proud owner of 120 rabbits, 15 hives and five fishponds with 5,000 fingerlings — all this in just three years.

A kilo of honey costs Sh400 and she can harvest as much as 100 kilos in a good season. A two-month-old rabbit sells at Sh1,000 in the locality.

This is just a glimpse of the woman who is transforming her life and that of her family after getting loans from the Women Enterprise Fund, started at the heat of the 2007 elections.

President Kibaki may have been desperate to woo women’s votes then, but the effects of the fund that became operational in 2008 is being felt by business savvy women at the grassroots.

“I intend to add poultry farming and start a hatchery, funds permitting,” says Wangu. Her first loan was Sh35,000. She got another Sh50,000 two years ago.

Across the Rift Valley, Ruth Mainye has literally struck gold in a fishpond. A member of Kabachia women’s group, Mainye’s six fish ponds have 6,000 fingerlings and her two greenhouses are an informal training centre for women keen to join the bandwagon.

“I had one greenhouse and one pond. I borrowed Sh20,000 and bought seedlings and started the second pond,” says Mainye. She grows tomatoes and capsicum (pilipili hoho).

Wangu and Mainye are just a small fraction of women who have elevated their women’s groups from mere merry go-rounds to outfits that engage in commercial business, especially in agriculture.

In an ordinary set-up, women’s groups mainly comprise struggling mothers coming together to contribute money that is then given to whoever picks the winning ticket.

Such money would also be used to buy household items like utensils and furniture.

“We are empowering women and in turn empowering the community,” says Mr Samuel Wainaina, the fund’s chief executive officer.

The fund has so far advanced loans to 245,000 women, with Sh408 million disbursed since inception.

“Most of these women are in rural areas and farming projects took the bulk of the funds,” says Gender, Children and Social Development minister Naomi Shabaan.

The fund has transformed women’s lives. Take the case of Ann Tunguta of Mzambarao women group in Chepukwa village near Kanduyi town.

Her group was formed in 1997 to raise capital for individual businesses. When the Women Enterprise Fund was introduced, the group decided to venture into dairy farming, among other businesses.

In 2008, Tunguta got Sh20,000 from the fund and bought a cow. Today, she has three cows that produce about 10 litres of milk daily.

“I earn at least Sh8,000 every month,” she says.

From the proceeds, she started poultry farming and now has 80 chickens. “I can say my life has changed. I plan to borrow Sh100,000 to expand my business,” says Tunguta, a mother of seven.

When the Mikuyuni group from Mwingi wanted to progress from a merry-go-round, they bought two oxen to plough their land and hire out for a fee.

“Four years ago, we started buying and selling chickens and eggs and when we had enough money we  bought 40 goats which give us milk for home use and for sale,” says Phillister Kathini the group’s secretary.

Two years ago, the group was advanced Sh48,000 from the fund. They have built an office, a chicken house and will be planting vegetables  at the onset of the rains. Meanwhile, their goats keep multiplying.

But it is in Mombasa where women are defining a new way to a better life.

The Wakesho group did not come together in 2006 to boost their personal businesses. “We started by helping orphans by training them in various skills,” says Jane Mbinga, the group’s coordinator.

The Kisauni group trained the youth to spin wool into mats and garments, which they sold to tourists, and in dress making.

When the ministry of Agriculture donated a weaving machine, the group needed some money to boost production. That is when they approached the Women Enterprise Fund in 2009 seeking Sh100,000. They got Sh50,000.

“We diversified and started teaching the youth baking skills and making liquid soap,” says Mbinga.

The 12-member group has succeeded in rehabilitating 25 youth and 25 children who are actively involved in the group’s business activities.

Their venture was further boosted by the fund last year when it sponsored them to attend the African Women’s Decade conference in Nairobi where Mbinga says the group “got exposure and made good money”.

According to Mbinga, the group is now engaged in baking, weaving table mats, making liquid soap and packaging Amaranth flour, which they sell at Sh200 per kilogramme.

“What we need now is a modern oven and several weaving machines as more youths are abandoning drug abuse and we need to include them in activities,” says the mother of four.

One of the major complaints by applicants is that the money offered by the fund is not enough to sustain a small business. But Mr Wainaina says the solution is not in the amount allocated, but the viability of an idea.

“One may need Sh2,000  to start a tomato selling enterprise while starting a mitumba or M-Pesa business will need more,” says Mr Wainaina.