Nseluka B1205 Group

In Kasama, Zambia, there is a group known as Nseluka B1205 and it has five lady members that all work for themselves, earning enough money for their families so that their children can go to good schools and they can have healthy food to eat. The women are between the ages of twenty-two and fifty years of age and have a combined total of thirty-seven children, some of the women married and working closely with their husband and the other women are single parents who are raising their children on their own.

The women of Nseluka B1205 do businesses like running restaurants, grocery shops and keeping chickens for a living and have had these businesses for over six years. This loan will be the group’s second loan and will help the women establish themselves as leading business people in their locality.

Naomi Daka is a part of this group and she is forty-two years old and has three children. She is a single mother and has to fend for the remaining school child who is her last born because the other two children have all completed their education and have invested heavily in Naomi’s poultry business. This business needs dedication and hard work and Naomi packs has found that if she looks after her chickens well, they earn more profit when sold because they grow very well. Her clay-bricked chicken pen needs some patching up because they encountered a lot of rain this year which caused some leakages, this is how she’ll use this loan.

The Microloan Foundation in Zambia lend to female entrepreneurs using the ‘centre’ model. A centre is typically made up of 3-4 sub-groups and these sub-groups almost always have five members. Each centre has its own name and the sub-groups within the centre share the same name. Each person within the group of five women is responsible for repaying her loan but the members support each other and if a member is unable to repay her loan on time, then the group assumes responsibility for repayment. Loan officers provide training to the groups, although it is expected that centre leaders will eventually assume responsibility for providing some of the basic training.

If you are lending, please be aware that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic your repayments could be at greater risk of delay or default.