World Connect

Mayi Wanga

Year: 2018

Country: Malawi

Project Status: Funded

Impact Sector: Economic Opportunity

Project Investment: $3,842.29

Project Launch: 11-15-18

The project aims to support young rural Malawian women by bridging the gap that exists between male and female entrepreneurs through literacy and entrepreneurship education. In addition, the project activities will also include training and establishing village saving loans groups and also cooperative groups.

Project Update: 4-17-19

The Mayi Wanga project has taught 50 women how to read and write, and equipped them with entrepreneurship skills. The participants are also partaking in a finance savings course which is being facilitated by the Centre For Free Market Enterprise (CFME) and First Discount House (FDH) Bank. To enhance the skills gained in the training, the participants have established five village savings and loans clubs, each with a savings account opened at FDH bank. The women have also opened personal savings accounts with the bank to easily manage their funds. A total of 45 women have already established small scale businesses and a total of K341,922 ($466 USD) has been generated by the participants in the form of savings. Income from such businesses will help improve livelihoods of the women and their families.

Final Report: 4-2-20

Led by a Young African Leaders Initiative Mandela Washington Fellow, Peter Yakobe, the Centre For Free Market Enterprise (CFME) has through the “Mayi Wanga” project trained women (50) have been trained in basic literacy, business management, financial management, and savings. As a direct result, all the 50 women are now able to read and write and have gained skills on how to start and manage businesses successfully. The project beneficiaries also formed five (5) new village savings and loans clubs and opened five (5) bank accounts with FDH Bank for the clubs that have helped them keep up to $900 in average group savings. The women have gone further to open personal savings accounts with the same bank which supports personal savings from their business established using small loans taken from group savings. Out of the 50 trained women, 45 were able to establish personal business representing 86.5 % success rate. CFME’s monitoring efforts have shown that 18 businesses have proved to be very successful helping women sustain their daily household financial needs.