Implementing Agenda 21

Zambian Women and Economic Empowerment

by Katongo Chisupa

In 1994 retired teacher Martha Mwale saw a friend developing her business very successfully. The 51-year-old former teacher decided to chat with her friend and find out what tricks she had used to boost her business position.

The friend explained that she had got a loan of ZK300,0001 from the Women Finance Trust of Zambia (WFTZ) early last year. She said that this was after she had taken a basic course in business management arranged a local institution.

Ms Mwale later formed a group of her own with nine women marketers. They applied for financial assistance from WFTZ and received a loan of ZK1million. Each member qualified for ZK200,000 reimbursable over six months. Initially, a 35% interest rate was charged on the loans, although this has risen to 56%, like in most commercial banks.

"You have to struggle as you know things are not always easy," Ms Mwale explains.

She acknowledges that there is a difference in her business: "I feel I am making more money because I am able to look after my family well," explains the former teacher, who looks after five of her nine children.

Although Ms Mwale is married, her husband's income is not as hers. He is also in private business, repairing furniture and other items. "Before I got the loan sometimes I would think of closing the shop," she explains.

Ms Mwale now represents hundreds of women who find it difficult to borrow money through normal commercial banks.

Over the past decade a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been set up to deal specifically with issues affecting women. The Women Finance Trust of Zambia, in existence since 1994, is one of these groups, and is committed to the economic empowerment of women. Its main objectives is to empower women entrepreneurs who do not have access to economic resources through credit and savings, while providing information, training, advocacy, lobbying and networking series.

"It is very difficult to get an overdraft from any bank....it is difficult, but the WFTZ does not demand too many things," she says.

To enable women to borrow money, they have to be 18 years of age, be resident in Zambia, have some business sense and become members of the WFTZ by paying ZK3000.

When an application is successful, 10% of the loan is deposited in the bank as a guarantee. There are also instructions that a certain amount of the money borrowed should be paid at that rate over a period of time.

Business confidence of the women applicants is bolstered by the WFTZ through assurances that the bank will help give them advice about the business world.

The Kabwata market is situated in one of the Lusaka suburbs. It now has five groups of 10 women each who are eligible to borrow from the WFTZ. Interestingly, Ms Mwale paid back her first loan within the stipulated time frame of six months and was immediately eligible for the second one. The WFTZ wasted no time in processing her next loan of ZK350,000.

"Today, my table is not well stocked but most the times it is," explains Ms Mwale with tinge of pride in her smile.

She feels strongly that if you are self-employed you have no choice but to work hard because if you relax, you won't get enough bread and butter.

Ms Mwale, whose goods include a variety of vegetables, says one needs to get the best to get the best. "If you get good quality supplies, business will move very fast."

Joyce Mulenga is thankful to the WFTZ for what it has done for her family. She agrees that the WFTZ has opened the gates to every woman in Lusaka interested in launching a small business: "They are not harsh. They are good people."

Ms Mulenga joined the bank two days after Ms Mwale. She runs a restaurant which specializes in making tea. Under the auspices of her bank, she has taken a short course in business planning management. She was initially given ZK200,000, with nine other marketeers getting similar loans, on condition that each woman should pay back ZK20,000 every two weeks.

She repaid her loan on time. Unfortunately, some in her group failed to do so, due to poor business management and double dealing.

Currently Ms Mulenga has a ZK350,000 loan, which she is repaying at ZK75,000 per month over six months .

"It's not much, I could manage to pay back even if I borrowed ZK1 million," she says.

"I am having good business, on a good business day, I make up to ZK100,000. This is helping me a lot more than in the past. Before, it was very difficult to do business."

Ms Mulenga started from a very poor background. She worked for an old prosperous man selling eggs in various markets from 1982 to 1990. During that period she learnt the rudiments of business. After the old man died she decided to start her own business with very meagre resources. In 1992, she managed to build a shop in Kabwata market. She has two dedicated workers.

Today, she is able to look after her seven children. The family lives in Chawama, one of the townships on the outskirts of Lusaka.

"Things have changed for the better. These days I have a lot relatives coming to seek help from me," proudly says the 40-year old divorcee.

In the sprawling Matero township on the western side of Lusaka, a small group of women runs a block making project.

Thirty-six-year old Betty Mwanza is the Chairperson of the Vwira (suffering) women's club. She leads an extremely determined group of 11 women who are in the block making business.

With the help of the Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA), the women received training in the trade for over a year between 1994 and 1995. Upon completion of the course, the group approached the WFTZ for funding, The response was positive. They received ZK1.1 million which they paid back within six months.

The women are based at a local reformed church from where they make and sell their blocks to companies, institutions and individuals at low prices. The women make an average of 50 blocks per day; 50% of the profit realized is shared every month, while the other 50% is deposited into a bank account ore re-invested.

The women, who are mostly widows or divorcees, make roughly ZK40,000 for every 1000 blocks they sell.

So far, their biggest order of blocks has come from a local businessman who has asked for 3000 blocks to build his house in Lilanda township, on the western side of the city.

"The demand for blocks is very high. We are very happy with the WFTZ for the help they are rendering to the women in Lusaka. It should not crumble like the Meridian Bank." Ms Mwanza was making reference to the Zambian branch of the fallen pan-African Bank, the Meridian.

By the end of March 1996, the trust had approved 334 loan applications worth ZK98 million.

The major beneficiaries of this money have been marketers at Lusaka-based markets. Generally, the WFTZ has been satisfied with the loan recovery rate. Except for a few isolated cases, most of the members have honoured their obligations. "This is a revolving fund which must be paid back so that other marketers may benefit from it," says credit controller Doris Nalumbwe.

"Our members seem to appreciate this fact and hence the favorable rate. To ensure that the loans are utilized for the purpose intended, the trust carries out spot checks on the loanee's business," she said. Fortnightly meetings are held with the loanees to review their respective ventures.

The marketers are also taught the importance of business planning, costing and pricing, entrepreneurship, stock control, marketing, banking and safe record-keeping. Members are encouraged to participate in these training programmes in order to sharpen their business skills and to improve their access to credit offered by commercial banks.

"Training is also offered to suit the members' needs for specific product line," said Miss Nalumbwe.

WFTZ's objective to economically empower the women of Zambia fits in well with that of Agenda 21, which is dedicated in part to strengthening the role of major groups, in this case, NGOs. Section 27 of Agenda 21, "Partnership with NGOs," says NGOs play a vital role in shaping and implementing participatory democracy. It goes on to say that independence from government and other sectors of society is one of their major attributes. NGOs can play an important role in helping society to agree on how to move away from unsustainable development patterns.

The gender inequality that exists in Zambia can hopefully be eliminated by this type of initiative which provides business opportunities for women. In Zambia men are slowly changing their attitudes towards their female counterparts both at home and in the workplace, accepting to work together as equals. Beneficiaries of the WFTZ loans have become breadwinners in their respective homes.

The Zambian government has created what it proudly calls an "enabling environment" to eliminate constitutional, legal, administrative, cultural, behavioural, social and economic obstacles to women's full participation in sustainable development and public life, as stated in Agenda 21. The WFTZ is one such "enabling environment."

When WFTZ started its operations, the highest loan it could give out was ZK200,000 per person, but over time, this has increased up to about ZK1 million per individual applicant. Women are, however, encouraged to apply as a group.

Most members are involved in selling charcoal and foodstuffs although there are some members, such as the Vwira group, who have diversified into brick making.

The WFTZ holds its general meetings yearly at which audited accounts are presented to the members, financial performance discussed, progress appraised and elections for members of the board held.

During this period, members provide input to determine the future of the Trust.

The WFTZ aims to become a self-sustained organization, to reach out to a majority of micro- and small-scale women entrepreneurs throughout the country, and to be a credible financial institution in the country.

At the United Nations World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975, a resolution was passed to establish an institution that would provide financial services to women.

Four years later in 1979, the Women World Banking (WWB), a global and independent non-profit financial institution was set up to advocate for full economic participation of women. The WWB has affiliates in more than 40 countries, of which WFTZ is one. It is governed by an 11-member board of directors elected at the annual general meeting.

Board members are professional women lawyers, bankers, accountants, manager and business women who serve voluntarily and are not salaried.

The WFTZ lead comes from institutions such as the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which started slowly and worked with a few poor women in rural Bangladesh by giving them loans.

General Manager Moonde Yeta stressed that they wouldn't want to make the mistake of going all over the country at the same time, preferring instead to take a cautious approach. For the next two years, the bank hopes to continue working in the vicinity of Lusaka.

"I know this hurts women in rural areas and those outside Lusaka and we feel for them strongly. But we also feel that it is better for us to build a sustainable organization that is going to be there beyond the 21st century and that is our ultimate goal for this organization to be the bank for women,' Ms Yeta explains.

Notes

1. At the time of writing (March 1996) 1,000 Zambian Kwacha were worth approximately one US dollar.