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Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

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academic education and have little formal education which leads<br />

to two issues: a lack <strong>of</strong> knowledge about the existence <strong>of</strong> financial<br />

services for the poor (a solution may be financial literacy<br />

campaigns) and little access to micr<strong>of</strong>inance services <strong>of</strong>fered by<br />

MFIs. The respondents also consider the size and nature <strong>of</strong> the<br />

business, nepotism and low coverage by MFI (concentration in<br />

bigger cities and in deep rural <strong>are</strong>as leaving out smaller towns) as<br />

other screening f<strong>actors</strong> by MFIs.<br />

c) Parameters related to efforts by women to get funding for their<br />

entrepreneurial ventures:<br />

Regarding efforts which <strong>are</strong> being made by women to raise finance<br />

for their businesses in Chinhoyi, almost 63% <strong>of</strong> the respondents<br />

agreed that they have made use <strong>of</strong> stokvels (rounds) in which they<br />

contribute a certain agreed amount <strong>of</strong> money together and it<br />

circulates amongst them until everyone in the group has received<br />

her portion and the process repeats again. However, 25% <strong>of</strong> the<br />

respondents did not agree with the idea and 12.5% were neutral.<br />

All <strong>of</strong> the respondents indicated that the current businesses<br />

which they were running were financed by savings from the<br />

previous business. This indicates that women in business in<br />

Chinhoyi <strong>are</strong> aiming higher and have the saving mentality which<br />

is crucial in the society as it makes us to think <strong>of</strong> the future rather<br />

than consuming all that could have been gathered today. Three<br />

quarters <strong>of</strong> the respondents indicated that they have received<br />

funds from family members in the diaspora. This is typical <strong>of</strong> the<br />

current situation in Zimbabwe in general due to the harsh<br />

economic conditions which prevailed in the past few years.<br />

However, 12.5% <strong>of</strong> the respondents indicated that they have not<br />

used or received start-up capital from relatives outside the<br />

country whilst the other 12.5% were neutral.<br />

The analysis above shows that women in Chinhoyi <strong>are</strong> not “cry<br />

babies” when it comes to the issues <strong>of</strong> securing finance to start<br />

and expand their businesses but they <strong>are</strong> doing a lot to mitigate<br />

the lack <strong>of</strong> finance. The stokvels initiative allows them to buy more<br />

than what one can with her own monies increasing the chances <strong>of</strong><br />

making pr<strong>of</strong>its.<br />

21

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