Women’s Bank rolls out USD loans
THE Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank (ZWMB) has started offering United States dollar-indexed loans as it continues to come up with tailored products targeted at women.
Last month, Treasury released $300 million to the bank for on-lending to customers.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, ZWMB chief executive officer Dr Mandas Marikanda said the bank has introduced measures to facilitate smooth access to loans.
“We are happy to announce that the loan repayment tenure has been reduced to 12 months.
“Also, high-value loans are being indexed to the US dollar. Agricultural value chains products are recovered in produce. What this means is that the bank is now offering loans in USD,” she said.
The loaned amount is determined by the viability of proposed projects.
Covid-19 affected many women-led businesses and the bank is taking a deliberate approach to prioritise such ventures.
“ZWMB accessed SME Covid-19 recovery funds from RBZ targeting businesses affected by the pandemic. Loans were issued with linear conditions in terms of interest rates and other administration fees. The bank is also offering community-based loans working with local leadership in the communities. This has enabled the bank to disburse loans to groups with members ranging from 20- 200 or more at the same time. The monitoring of the funds is done by the community,” she said.
Since its inception in 2018, close to 10 000 women have benefitted, with about 80 percent of the beneficiaries being women.
The bank has also decentralised its offices countrywide to ensure accessibility.
“Our client base comprises mostly women, with a ratio of 8:2, eight being women and two being men. Marginalised women are mostly resided in the rural areas where the bank is mostly focusing on. The bank has offices in all provinces and satellite offices in selected districts with the aim of covering all districts.
“We are also offering financial literacy training, with focus on access to finance to enable green enterprises to develop business ideas. For technical training, the bank partners with other service providers.”
Dr Marikanda encouraged small and medium enterprises to regularise their operations to receive financial assistance from the bank.
“ZWMB is a vehicle for financial inclusion with a mandate of economic and financial empowerment of all women. This is being done through enabling them to open accounts and access loans which are monitored for growth into SMEs.”
Although the bank supports projects from various sectors of the economy, agriculture is being given special attention.
“The bank is actively involved in various agricultural value-chain finance where to date we have financed tobacco, sorghum, cotton, sesame, groundnuts, sugarbeans, sunflower, caster beans and more. Asset finance for value addition has enabled processing of farm produce.”