Two group members who qualify have already received their first round of loans. We are working with the other 4 and will be giving out their loans soon.

The possibility of creating this Credit Group and supporting the women has been possible thanks to a $500 donation from John & Elizabeth Batton in Dallas/Fort Worth, USA.

Through our innovative  and high impact Credit Groups strategies, we are libearating several rural women from the grip of poverty through micro-loans and training. If you can help or partner with us, please visit the How you can help page. Thank you.

Micro-credit is defined by the Grameen Bank as: “the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans”. Micro Credit has proven to be an effective and popular measure in the ongoing struggle against poverty, enabling those without access to lending institutions to borrow and start small businesses. We provide and training, on-going management assistance, and monitoring to ensure success.

In 2006/2007, a pilot project was initiated. The project had a budget of CFA (XAF) 800,000 (US$ 1600) for a series of about 25 loans averaging CFA (XAF) 40,000. These loans were organised in two separate trust groups of people who were responsible for repayment. Out of these trust groups, one was able to pay back 91% the loans completely while the other was able to pay back 89% of the total amount loaned. The interest rate used was 14.2%, which is small in comparison to most micro credit programs. HINT uses the lowest feasible rates in order to ensure that the loans will be a means of investing in development rather than becoming a burden for the people who receive the loans.

The results of this pilot project have encouraged HINT to work on a larger micro financing project. In order to increase the scale of this project HINT wants to increase the total investment capital to CFA 2 million (US$ 4,000 or GBP 2,000) for micro financing before December 2007. We are looking for a development loan or a grant. We have put together a complete Proposal about this that discusses several options and looks at critical issues in the future and will like to share it with you at you request.

We currently support over 25 social entrepreneurs and a few outstanding onesw are shown below, most of them are in their second round of loans. This number is expected to more than double in 2008. We invite you to join us in combating poverty through micro-credits.

Download a copy of our Micro-credit Business Model (Proposal).

Our microcredit program  is oranised under Africa Rural Investment Fund (ARIF).

Combining the business skills that HINT’s Executive Director, Tinshu Genesis gathered during the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) organized by Santa Clara University in the USA in concert with the Leavey School of Business Administration in 2006, he trained the women on topics such as:

Session 1:
Choosing your business
Planning your Finances

Session 2:
Assessing Profit: Will it work?
Borrowing Money

Session 3:
Keeping Records
Expanding your Business

Go here for photos of recipients and the training.

A big thank you to Helen Savage in the UK for helping to put this training material together during her volunteer time at HINT.

The excited women all gathered at HINT’s office, signed the promissory notes, and collected their loans.

Go here for photos of recipients and the training.