Changes in store for microcredit project
Quaker Congo Partnership project to feature additional training
The Quaker Congo Partnership (QCP) is to provide additional training for participants in its microcredit project.
Andjelani Kisubi, the project organiser and supervisor, reported in a recent update that not all loans are being repaid, as the businesses they have financed are not always successful. On other occasions, Andjelani said, recipients spent the loans on school fees, for example, or mending a roof, rather than on investing in a business idea. To combat this, additional training will be provided for the women participating in the project. This will cover how the scheme works, what a loan is and what it can be spent on.
QCP’s microcredit project was set up in 2008 and supports more than thirty women in Abeka and almost twenty in Uvira, assisting them financially and helping them develop practical and organisational skills.
Loans of either $50 or $70 are made to individuals or groups. These loans have helped with initiatives ranging from buying cassava and making it into flour to growing and selling peanuts, QCP member Margaret Gregory explained.
Andjelani Kisubi has also identified a shortage of employment opportunities for local graduates, and QCP hopes to set up a microcredit project for that target group.
