Kimironko: A financial institution to facilitate women in accessing loans opens

As women who have been engaging in medium enterprises have been lacking a financial institution to enable them access to loans, on 21^st June 2019, a financial institution to support them was officially opened in the Sector of Kimironko, in Gasabo District. The financial institution which was opened there is called BRAC, whose objective is to assist women in accessing loans to improve their welfare through small projects.

This financial institution expects to open ten more branches during this year, however, in its five-year programme, it expects to have established 50 branches. It is anticipated that over eighty thousand (80,000) women with medium projects will have accessed loans to improve their welfare. At the beginning, five women accessed loans, all of them were given a total of seven hundred and fifty thousand Rwandan francs (750,000frw).

Mukamana Pelagie, lives in Nyagatovu Cell, in Kimironko Sector. She deals in charcoal, where she sells in small buckets, on a retail basis in her place of residence in Nyagatovu Cell; she says that the loans she received will help her to expand her trade. She had this to say, “The reason as to why we didn’t hesitate to pay attention to you is the fact that this institution improves the woman’s welfare, where they enable us to access loans without first demanding collateral. It is my first time to request a loan, but I am ready to manage it properly.”

The Executive Secretary of Kimironko Sector, Mapambano Nyiridandi thanks BRAC for having started the branch in the Sector of which he is a leader, it is timely, because it has come to supplement the existing financial institutions in the financial services they offer to the citizenry, particularly women.

He said, “You must utilize this opportunity properly, the opportunities which are offered to you by the state. By the fact that BRAC was permitted to operate in the country, is because the Central Bank found out that the activities for BRAC would be beneficial to the population. The loans you about to access should be used properly, by reimbursing the money, thereby improving your development. You as the first beneficiaries should act as the light of which will be emulated by your colleagues.”

Nsabimana Gerard, the Inspector within the National Bank who is responsible for the inspection of medium financial institutions, points out that BRAC is a legal financial institution which was approved by the Central Bank of Rwanda, thus seeking its services is their right.

He said, “There isn’t any person who can prosper without using money. Long ago, they used to apply the method of exchanging food, but now it is the money, which is used as a medium prospering. As regards the loans you receive, you are obliged to utilize it properly, by servicing it in accordance with the agreements you made, kugira ngo amafaranga mwishyura azagere ku bandi. Dusaba ibigo by’imari kwegera abaturage no kumenya icyo bakeneye n’aho bashaka kugera.”

Women beneficiaries of the loans with the management of BRAC, as well as the Executive Secretary of Kimironko Sector, the tall person in the background (Photo/Panorama)

The Managing Director of BRAC in Rwanda, Tapan Kumer, who had come to officially open the medium financial institution, says that they glad to be operating in Rwanda, because the country is at the forefront on the international scene, visavis promoting a woman, additionally he pointed out that they are thankful that the Central Bank never gave them a hard time, in regard to granting the Institution the relevant documents.

He says that Rwanda and Bangladesh have got almost similar history, because the Genocide which was committed against the Tutsi is almost the same as to what happened in Bangladesh in 1971, because in that country, over three million people died.

He pointed out that despite the fact that they operate in the neighboring countries, they found it imperative to work in Rwanda, the country which is supportive of women’s development.

At the beginning BRAC will be officially opening branches in the Sectors of: Kimironko, Kinyinya and Bumbogo in Gasabo District in Kigali City.

Apart from officially opening the medium, BRAC intends to star up a non-governmental organization (NGO), which will be supporting the population in the sphere of development, most especially with regard to the population’s social welfare and economic development.

The Central Bank of Rwanda indicates that in 2008, the Rwandans who accessed financial institutions were 21 per cent. The obstacle which rendered to that was the limited number of financial institutions that used to offer loans. By 2012, the services for financial institutions reached 42 per cent, in 2016, the Rwandans who would access financial services from financial institutions were 68 per cent.

Rwanyange Rene Anthere