Lubomba 1109 Group

The five women members of Lubomba 1109 are based in Livingstone. They are all over thirty years old and have been in business for a little while now thanks to the funding that LENDWITHCARE gives them. This is because Microloan Foundation Zambia helps them research their market and points out which businesses would be profitable enough to open in Livingstone. The women are either married or are divorced and all are owners of grocery shops; they used their previous loans to increase their capital base.

Mebelo is a very industrious young woman who is running a fully stocked grocery shop. At the age of twenty-six, she is a financially independent woman who has been selling assorted grocery items for the past four years. For Mebelo, business is beyond the money but she looks at it as a means to serve her community by providing groceries. Her husband is a teacher and is very supportive of his wife’s business and helps her sell whenever he is not working.

The Microloan Foundation in Zambia lends 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.