MYC4 greets the new year with a new loan provider: Kenya Entrepreneurship Empowerment Foundation (KEEF).
KEEF was established as a Trust in 2004 and targets micro entrepreneurs and small scale farmers in rural and semi urban areas in Central Kenya, South Rift Valley, Nairobi and Eastern provinces, with a focus on unbanked women and youth. More than 80% of KEEF’s clients live in rural areas and engage in agribusiness, mainly in dairy, poultry, pig, horticulture, tea and coffee farming.
During the past 3 years KEEF has tripled its number of clients every year. A large part of its success is attributable to its unique lending model and product offerings. KEEF clients belong to solidarity groups that are modeled on traditional savings clubs, known as “merry go rounds” in Kenya. In these clubs, members each contribute money monthly to the “pot” and in rotation each month one member takes all the money in the “pot.” KEEF has modified the traditional savings club with the addition of credit.
KEEF’s loan sizes will be in the range of EUR 100 – 5,000 and are targeted “to clients with good credit relationship mainly from the rural areas with interest in small to middle agribusiness, green entrepreneurial projects and other innovative and profitable businesses. The product will mainly support enterprises owned, operated/managed by women and the youth.”
Being a small institution with good structure, there is potential for KEEF to grow with MYC4 and become a significant provider. Their focus on rural areas, with use of technology to lower costs, enables a competitive edge and a needed portfolio diversification on the platform. We are also excited about the opportunity to increase MYC4’s portfolio in Kenya, which has been on a decline.
Training is now in progress and we expect to see their first loans on the platform later this week. To read more about KEEF, please view their MYC4 provider profile and their website.
Welcome.
However, it seems like KEEF’s website is down at the moment. Bad timing 😉
Best regards
Claus
Hi Claus,
You are indeed right. It was working on Friday though. I’ll remove the link until their site is back up.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Githa
Hi Claus
The website is back up. They seem to have upgraded it which is probably why it was down earlier this week.
\Githa
“… expect to see their first loans on the platform later this week” … is already now. KEEF is active on http://www.myc4.com.
Good news.
/Claus
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