Giving credit where it's due |
Urji Berisa is one of 240 small savings and credit unions being supported by Self
Help Africa in Ethiopia. This is their story.
Alem Abebe is proud of her credit group, proud of the role she has played in an initiative that has ‘transformed the lives and fortunes of hundreds of families’ living in and around Amolo Tebo village in Ethiopia’s Oromia Province.
Chairperson of the Urji Berisa Savings and Credit Co-Operative (SACCO), Alem says that the biggest challenge they face is managing the expectations of members, and satisfying the demands of people who want to join the group.
Established in the Sire district of Oromia’s Arsi Zone during Self Help Africa’s Dodota rural development project in 2004, Alem Abebe was one of the founder members of the community-based SACCO.
With a current membership of 556, the Urji Berisa SACCO will this year disburse more than 636,000 Ethiopian Birr (€26,000) in loans to 540 of its members, providing them with small sums of credit to support a wide range of income generating activities, most of which are farming-based.
Urji Berisa SACCO isn’t just about providing loans either, as the group is also providing members with a facility where they can accumulate small savings for future use. At present, this SACCO has more than 191,448 Birr (€7,800) held on deposit – providing scores of members with a vital nest egg that they can call upon if required - to invest in future business enterprise or, at times of financial pressure, in the family.
Lending money to support income generating enterprise is the primary function of the SACCO however, and loans in the past year have allowed members to invest in range of activities, including animal rearing and fattening, grain purchase and sale, smallscale shop trading, and farmer investment in fertilizer, seed, pesticide and the rental of additional land. Close to 70% of all loans provided to group members are invested directly in agriculture related activities.
The average size of loan is 1,170 Ethiopian Birr (€47), and the single largest loan provided to a member last year was 3,600 Ethiopian Birr (€147). Urji Berisa SACCO is one of seven primary savings and credit cooperatives attached to Keleta Women’s SACCO Union, set up in 2005, and with a membership of just under 2,000 people. More than 70% of the Urji Berisa SACCO are women. Like the other 240 primary savings and credit cooperatives being supported by Self Help Africa in Ethiopia, most loans are provided for farm-based enterprise because most of the members are farmers, says programme coordinator Kelifa Hassan.
“In some cases people rent land, and in others they set up off-farm businesses. But it is mostly about farming- giving people a chance to invest in livestock, in seed, in irrigation, or in developing some other food production activity.”
“We are all very grateful that Self Help Africa brought this credit service to our village,” says Alem Abebe. “Many households have prospered as a result of the loans we received.” “Urji Berisa SACCO has been a great success in our community. Our biggest challenge at the moment is to match the desire of new members to join our group. Sometimes there is frustration, because there is a waiting list of six months to join.” “We have to encourage people to be patient, and also understand that before they can take a loan, they must start to save, and show that they will be able to save, and make the repayments that they will need to on their loans,” she adds.
45-year-old Emebet Lema from Amola Tebo village joined Urji Berisa SACCO shortly after it was formed in 2004. A mother of seven children aged from 11 years up to 26, Emebet has taken six loans from the SACCO – sums from as little as 400 Birr (€16) to 3,000 Birr (€122). She has used the money to buy goats and sheep for fattening, established a local brewing business, and leased land to expand the family’s two-acre farm.
Today, Emebet and her family farm eight acres, own a pair of oxen that she uses herself and hires to others for ploughing, and also keeps dairy cows, sheep and goats. Last year she replaced the thatched roof on her house with corrugated tin.
Urji Berisa is one of 240 primary savings and credit cooperatives being supported by Self Help Africa in Oromia and Southern Nations regions of Ethiopia. The primary SACCO groups, which are affiliated to five savings and credit cooperative unions, have a total membership of approximately 40,000, with plans to increase that number to 60,000 in the coming years.
Self Help Africa’s rural SACCO programme receives donor and technical support from
the Irish League of Credit Unions Foundation and from Terrafina Microfinance. The project
is also supported by Ethiopian local and regional government agencies. |
