Thank you for the comment. I believe the largest challenge we face at the moment is sourcing affordable and long-term financing. We require a significant investment of patient capital to help us scale up and afford the transition costs required to transform into a regulated deposit taking institution in Kenya. By accessing savings deposits, we can then offer much lower interest rates on the loans to our farmers. We can also use the patient capital to improve our IT infrastructure to better leverage technologies like the Safaricom's M-Pesa mobile transfer system which will reduce the transaction costs to our farmers in the rural areas of Kenya.
I heard a report saying Juhidi is the most effective source of micro-business / SME financing in Kenya because they allow borrowers to pay back using MPesa on their phones, which only takes about 2-3 seconds. Is this true??
Comments
Dear Nat Robinson,
According to your experience what are the main barriers or challenges so that social business model can thrive?
Cheers,
The Changemakers's Team
Dear Violeta,
Thank you for the comment. I believe the largest challenge we face at the moment is sourcing affordable and long-term financing. We require a significant investment of patient capital to help us scale up and afford the transition costs required to transform into a regulated deposit taking institution in Kenya. By accessing savings deposits, we can then offer much lower interest rates on the loans to our farmers. We can also use the patient capital to improve our IT infrastructure to better leverage technologies like the Safaricom's M-Pesa mobile transfer system which will reduce the transaction costs to our farmers in the rural areas of Kenya.
I heard a report saying Juhidi is the most effective source of micro-business / SME financing in Kenya because they allow borrowers to pay back using MPesa on their phones, which only takes about 2-3 seconds. Is this true??