The Siyakhula Microfinance Institution (Siyakhula MFI) deliberately targets women because women constitute the largest percentage of the very poor. We have found that poor women will sacrifice more to get their families out of poverty. Money reaching a family through women brings benefits to more people thereby multiplying the impact of developmental initiatives.

Workshop reports by participating Siyakhula MFI branches reaffirm the view that poor women who participate in various micro finance programmes have improved the quality of their lives and those of their families. They create jobs for themselves, their neighbours and members of the community. This leads to improved self-esteem by the women; improved status of women in the family and in turn an increase in respect towards them; improved nutritional status of their children; better access to education for their children; home improvements; better health status and improvement in morbidity rates; employment creation; and the generation of savings that in turn generate additional assets and wealth. WDB therefore contributes to the objectives of the National Development Plans. We also contribute to the country’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals that were declared by the United Nations in September 2015.

WDB Trust is collaborating with the National Stockvels Association of South Africa (NASASA) to enhance opportunities for our Siyakhula MFI clients to save money. This collaboration will allow NASASA to administer savings for the benefit of Siyakhula MFI clients. The Health and Education Services (HES) product is one of the service and product offerings available to our Siyakhula MFI clients. We plan to cover 90% of Siyakhula MFI Centres by 2018/2019.

We have found that poor women will sacrifice more to get their families out of poverty.

HOW IT WORKS

Siyakhula MFI provides productive loans to individual women clients who form groups of five members each to enforce compliance with the terms of the loans. The groups self-select based on trust and shared values. A Centre is established by eight groups of five women each.

In 2013 the WDB Trust modernised its developmental micro finance methodology and operational systems to bring it in line with developments in ICT and increase efficiency. We now use mobile banking platforms.

Siyakhula MFI is implemented Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. We plan to expand by one new province each year until we have reached significant numbers of clients who need our services.