By Rev. Wasike and Lia

Twenty women in CBSM community had the excitement of participating in their first business management workshop two weeks ago.

Ericah and Millicent in Nairobi, planned and organised the training session. We will write more about the event in the next days.

By Rev. Wasike and Lia

We have thankfully received a second micro-loan from a private lender. With this money another women co-op group will be able to open up their own VPS.

Our business team in Nairobi (hats off to Millicent and Ericah) are in the process of making up the training material for our first Village Phone Salon Business Training Workshop. If all goes well, this workshop will take place in the next week or so. After which, the two Village Phone Salons will start their business.

Our goal is to make the workshop learning material available to the other members of this site. Together we can fundamentally profit from sharing such material, as well as our experiences. I know that Rev. Teh's help in doing market research helped us tremendously. Without his group's willingness to take the first steps towards accomplishing such a new form of study, our own market research would not have been easy to accomplish at all.

The Kimilili Village Phone Salon women’s co-op received a private micro-loan from an anonymous donator to start up our first Village Phone Salon. The donor has indicated that if the first VPS is successful and if our business and marketing practices are transparent, he would be willing to make another loan or two. So, we are setting up a business structure and practices that make it transparent to everyone that we are capable of creating future successful business ventures.

This donator’s terms of loan are generous (only 5% interest on the loan compared to the micro-financing agency’s 16-18%), but also follow along the same guidelines as normal micro-financing agency for the women’s co-op.

Hereby follows the conditions and terms and business practices of the first Kimilili VPS:

The Kimilili VPS women’s co-op consist of a team in Kimilili and one in Nairobi.

In Kimilili, the women’s co-op consists of active members (Margret Mafuta, Janerose Kuya) who run the business day-to-day and silent members. Margret Biketi, Teresia Musyoka Mwikali, silent members, act as guarantors on the loan, as well as give Margret and Janerose moral support, advice and supervise the flow of income and expenditures.

The Kimilili women’s co-op has weekly meetings to discuss the week’s business and to repay the weekly loan payment. Each contributes some shares for the repayment of loan.

It is the mission of the active members to pay the 263 KES in full through the profits of the VPS business. If they are not able to do this, they must find other means to pay the loan or the silent members have to make up the difference.

The women’s co-op will receive training on best business practices that include many subjects from loan and repayment guidelines, marketing and sales practices, to sources of income and expenditure, and bookkeeping practices. This training will be defined and carried through by the Nairobi supervisory team or a hired expert.

In Nairobi, the supervisory and marketing team consists of Rev. Wasike , Millicent Aswata, Ericah Kiptoo, Enock Wanaswa, and Edward Makona. Together they will build up and train the women’s co-op in best business practices, planning the opening ceremony for the VPS business, working on marketing concepts, and supervising the bookkeeping responsibilities.

The Loan

The weekly loan payment is 263 KES. The loan (12,025 KES (150 USD)) will be paid back with 5% interest minimum one day, maximum 12 months of receiving the loan.

Expected VPS Income and Expenditure

A detailed outline of the estimated expenditures and costs has been calculated. For the 12 month duration it takes to pay back the loan, the VPS must sell a minimum of 10 minutes of phone services per day (25 work days in a month) and 260 scratch cards (total 7,360 KES (net)) per month in order for the business profit to cover costs and loan repayment.

The VPS must sell more phone minutes and scratch cards than that mentioned above for the Phone Ladies to make an income for themselves and their families within the first year. Therefore, special events will be undertaken to increase the number of customers and raise funds to pay off the loan promptly.