Table banking empowering women

Since the birth of time, women, especially in African societies, have traditionally played the role of nurturers.

So, while men took to the river, forest or land to look for food, it was mostly women’s role to ensure that it was turned into a meal for the family, storing the remains for tomorrow. This traditional order of things has greatly been disrupted by today’s realities, including modern systems of land tenure and rural-urban migration.

Globally, women continue to be spectators as opposed to participants in formal finance. Data from the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion database highlights the existence of significant gender gaps in ownership of accounts and usage of savings and credit products. For instance, 47 per cent of women own an account compared to 55 per cent of men.

Today, many women, especially in rural Kenya, find themselves as the functional heads of a number of families. And without a regular source of income and the requisite knowledge and a dearth of opportunities, many are living in the throes of unrelenting want. Add to this traditional systems of asset tenure that are entrenched in patriarchy, which ensure most women do not have titled chattels which they can use as collateral for loans, and you have a virtual crisis on your hands.

This is the narrative we sought to change a few years ago. Since 2009, and using the concept of table banking as our motif, we have been able to mobilise over 182,000 women (working through 11,236 groups) and growing daily.

Today, these women control a revolving fund of Sh2.1 billion, which is in their hands and not the organisation. Starting out of our cradle in Uasin Gishu County, JOYWO has grown tremendously and is today present in 44 counties.

Table banking is a financial model that enables members of solidarity groups to contribute, save and borrow money for entrepreneurial activities.

This money is available to members in the form of long and short-term loans, which they use as seed capital for income-generating projects like more scientific farming, chicken rearing and retail trade, among others.

Through this project, we are contributing, in our own small way, to empowering emerging entrepreneurs in Kenya, especially SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). Tellingly, in his address to the nation ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta stressed the significance of this segment as the true purveyors of Kenyans’ enterprising spirit, celebrating its contribution of approximately 45 per cent to our GDP and eight out of every 10 jobs in Kenya.

But we are not just throwing money at the problem of poverty among our women. At the core of our model is a very active skills transfer program which trains the women on such germane topics as entrepreneurship, business skills, record keeping and group dynamics among others. The capacity building component also involves training the members in livelihood projects with a view to entrenching food and income security in families. We also help them access markets for their produce or products.

Having seen the hunger of our women entrepreneurs for opportunities, we are humbled by the realisation that we have barely scratched the surface. We have got work to do to scale up JOYWO and reach as many Kenyan women as possible. Our aim is to reach two million women by 2019 and be in all 47 counties by November this year.

By April next year, we look forward to have trained 150,000 women, largely on entrepreneurial skills. Our other target is to have at least 50,000 groups by the end of next year.

We recognise that our members cannot shrink into greatness. Our joy is the graduation of our members from MSME to SME status, and we seek at the very least a 50 per cent conversion rate. Interestingly, men do not want to be left behind, and in the spirit of inclusion which was at the very core of our founding ethos, we have opened up membership to them with a lower threshold of 30 per cent.

The recent move by the Government to reserve at least 30 per cent of all public tenders for women, youth and persons living with disability is a laudable and progressive move. The onus is now on us to take advantage of this window to grow our enterprises and take them to the next level.

Given our experience with peerage-based table banking, we are more than convinced that Kenyan women are bankable entrepreneurs ready for take-off.

The author is the founder of Joyful Women Organisation (JOYWO) and wife to the Deputy President, Republic of Kenya.