Steward Bank’s rural entrepreneurs initiative has been given a five-year grant of $100 million from the family foundation of Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa.
The money is intended to scale up an existing programme that has been
going on for the last three years and has already seen Steward Bank disburse $3
million in rural finance projects through a USAID guarantee facility, with
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as technical partner. Small
businesses and cooperatives have received loans throughout the country to start
ventures such as poultry production, with most of the money directed to
projects run by women.
Mr Masiyiwa and his wife Tsitsi have now stepped in with an additional $25 million to be disbursed every year in small loans of up $10 000 for rural entrepreneurs. The Masiyiwas want the initiative to reach every part of the country, and have promised more if the programme continues to be a success.
The $100 million grant, which comes from the Masiyiwas’ personal money
and financial resources (not from the Econet business), will be administered by
Steward Bank as an agent to assess, review and disburse the loans. The
Masiyiwas have called on philanthropists around the world to match their grant
and help rural areas in Africa generate income and jobs.
Writing on his Facebook blog several months ago, Mr Masiyiwa said the
initiative was started as a means to afford rural people real income. He said
the results over the last three years have been spectacular as Steward Bank has
built teams that travel around the country the country.
The loans carry a subsidised interest rate of 5 percent and do not
require collateral security. Eligible entrepreneurs must not be engaged
“traditional” projects, such as bottle stores and shops, but must be involved
in cottage industries such as poultry, ‘agritech’ and health services. The
grant does not include loans for farming, as these are already available from
government other related programmes.
Mr Masiyiwa has stipulated that priority must be woman (50 percent) and
to young people. He also said 25 percent of the grant must finance projects in
the rural Matabeleland provinces in south west Zimbabwe. He also said he wanted
10 percent of the grant to be channeled towards training in entrepreneurship.
The programme is structured in such a way that anyone who benefits from the
facility must undergo basic training in how to run a business.
Steward Bank CEO Dr Lance Mambondiani said the bank was already equipped
with most of the infrastructure to lend the money and would soon call on
interested beneficiaries to submit their projects.
For
several months now, Mr Masiyiwa, who has almost 4 million followers on
Facebook, has been talking about what he refers to as “ReImagineRural”, in
which he has been calling on young people to focus their entrepreneurship
energy on rural areas in Africa.
