International Women’s Day Month: Is the rural woman in Zimbabwe bankable?

By Lilian Muungani

Members of the Chinyamukwakwa irrigation scheme in Chisumbanje, Chipinge District grade their tomatoes for the market. Strive Masiyiwa has thrown rural women like these a life line through the USD100 million Rural Finance Loan.

Veronica Mashesheshe of Chiwara communal lands in Gutu, is very good at roasting nuts for peanut butter production. For a long time, she has thought of packaging huge volumes of salted roasted nuts for supply to local supermarket chains as well as supplying big companies with peanut butter for onward branding. But without a bank to provide startup capital to increase production levels, this desire remained an almost unachievable dream.

Veronica’s circumstances represent the common point of desperation among rural women in Zimbabwe- the story of skill, passion and energy without finances needed to translate this into sustainable livelihoods. The infrastructural terrain in most rural areas comprises clinics, roads and heavily beer stocked growth points. Most banks have not found it necessary to set up shop there.

Zimbabwe’s Women Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) Ambassador Angeline Mikiri believes banks are not exploiting the potential for wealth creation for the depositors through rural women.

‘By way of an example, the global market for grain fed road runner chickens is huge. Rural women are better positioned to supply this market because of their geographical environment, they are already grain producers and their cultural orientation strategically positions them in the chicken rearing sector.  The point we make is that there is massive potential for the commercialization of the skills that rural women have but they need a gradual introduction to concepts of banking and loans. If these women are given training on consortium approaches to poultry farming for example, they can sustainably respond to the global poultry market demands,’ said Mikiri.

Veronica is among many rural women who enthusiastically received news of a Rural Finance Loan unveiled by Steward Bank through personal funds availed by Zimbabwean Mobile communications mogul Strive Masiyiwa.  In yet another demonstration of innovation in the financial services sector, Steward Bank has commenced administering the Rural Finance Loan with a stipulation of simple terms and conditions that appeal to the rural banker. The loan application form, seen by this writer, is a simple document designed to communicate with a client base that has limited exposure to a culture of banking. 

‘I am old, a grandmother of 6 but you don’t need much energy to roast nuts and salt them. I will apply for the loan, I have been doing broiler chickens and off season fresh nuts. The sales have been very good but with capital injection we can clear more land and produce larger volumes in  off season nuts to expand our market,’ says  Veronica with a determination betraying an optimistic take on her trade.

The highest level of complication on the loan application form could be the request for a statement of net worth, which can easily be established through simple training. The form has categories for companies and individual sole trader type of businesses.

‘The sole trader requirements have been simplified to the basics, because you cannot just have anyone walk in a bank and then be given money on the presentation of a story. We have a criteria that is balanced enough to give administrative efficiency without shutting out our potential beneficiaries with bureaucracy,’ explains a customer care representative at a Steward Bank branch in Masvingo.

The rural loan facility could see Zimbabwe joining economies like Britain, Italy, China and Greece where the elderly population participate in economic growth through the cottage industry concept. Most of the expensive olive oil on Zimbabwean retail shelves is actually expressed from olives by elderly Greek women while Chinese rural women are the primary producers of most noodles and macaroni products being shipped across the seas into Africa.

70% of Zimbabwe’s population is in the form of families run by women in rural areas. But for many years, financial service providers have experienced little relevance in their lives. Apart from achieving the philanthropic dimension through sustainable poverty alleviation initiatives, the Rural Loan facility is an opportunity for rural women to commercialize their skills in the production of traditional dried foods and livestock production.