Msekera 0109 Group

There are five female entrepreneurs who live and work in Chipata. These women formed a group and call themselves as Msekera 0109 group. The members of this group are involved in various small enterprises which include grocery shops, poultry farms and internet cafes. The proceeds achieved from these enterprises goes toward the upkeep of their thirty-two dependents who are all going to school. These thirty-two dependents include two orphan children from their deceased friends.

The Msekera 0109 group members are between the ages of twenty-six and forty-three years old and have expanded the items they sell and their capital with the help of their previous loans.

Doreen is forty-six years old and she is married. Her husband is a Secondary school teacher. The couple has four children who are her biggest motivation to work harder to fulfil their needs. Doreen is a very happy member because she has seen her poultry business grow. The previous loans helped her to invest in her poultry farming activity. She has seen her sales and profits go up. Doreen has used some of the saved profits to buy a plot of land. She will use the land to build a family home and a couple of chicken runs to separate the chickens according to their age.

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.