So, I have not mentioned much about work. I work with MIMA, the microfinance portion of LICODEP. It was started over a year ago and has been gaining a lot of momentum within the Likoni community. It is structured as many microfinance institutions (MFIs. That is right, I am learning the lingo), with clients joining in groups of five, called solidarity groups. The groups serve to insure each others loans, and maintain member accountability. Each member is required to save 50 shillings (about 75 cents) per week. Then the members take loans when they have saved one third of the amount that they want to borrow. The first loan can be as little as 5,000 Ksh up to 10,000Ksh. The solidarity group members can only apply for loans two at a time.

The MIMA clients are predominantly women, small business owners living in Likoni, although there are plenty of men and non-business owners as well. Most of the businesses are one-person operations and range from day care centers to beauty shops to fish mongering to selling secondhand clothes to small produce stands. For almost all of them, they do not qualify for traditional loans and the chance to get a small loan (10,000Ksh = about $150), is a unique opportunity. Microfinace is a fast growing field, and there are many other MFIs within Mombasa. However, LICODEP is a recognized community leader and several members have expressed that they feel more comfortable dealing with people they know and trust as opposed to some of the large MFIs which serve over 15,000 clients (MIMA serves around 100). The other added benefit of MIMA is that the registration fees and mandatory savings are lower than the bigger MFIs, which puts membership within reach for many of the poorer people within Likoni.

Ok so what am I doing for MIMA? Good question. Right now I am acting almost like a business consultant (I know I am laughing too) for them. The operations are going fairly well, however, after a year of saving and lending to clients, there are some adjustments that need to be made and some more infrastructure put in place. I am almost finished researching and putting together the business plan, complete with reporting mechanisms to help MIMA measure their successes and shortcomings. I am also helping set up a simple database to track clients. In addition we are working to make MIMA self sufficient, and see how we can get the business to generate enough revenue from the interest from loans so that the staff can actually get paid (ok they get paid now, but not much). And if all this gets done and I still have time (or if I decide to stay here past December) we want to put together a few business workshops for the clients, as they have been wanting for nearly a year.

The day to day isn't super thrilling. In the mornings I get as much work done as I can. For the first several weeks I was researching the world of microfinance and the standard MFI business structure. In addition, there was a lot of observation time so I could become familiar with how MIMA runs. These days I have a lot of different stuff to do. Some days I go to the field with Mweupe, the MIMA field officer to meet with the clients and collect their savings and loan repayments. Other days I meet with other local MFIs. Last week I was doing a whole lot of data entry and cash flow projections. It’s a nice mix of stuff and I am really enjoying the relaxed pace of working here.