Mwatambulwa 1105 Group

Mwatambulwa 1105 is a vibrant group that is based in Livingstone town and which is very jovial and business minded. Actually, Mwatambulwa in local language means “You are well received”. The ladies have 54 dependants in which 40 are their biological children while 14 are orphans from their deceased relatives because Zambia has a culture that ensures all orphans are well taken care of by the elders alive. The ladies run groceries, second hand clothing stores and others sell vegetables.

At the age of thirty-eight, Lisa is our featured client in this article and she is very glad to represent the members of the group because she has acquired a lot of knowledge from all the members of the group. Lisa is a single woman who has two children and she has been running a grocery shop for three years where she diligently makes some profits that she uses to care for her children and her aging parents. Before the onset of her business, Lisa was working as a maid but this did not last very long because she felt ill-treated. She will buy more groceries to stock her shop, with her share of this loan.

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.