Goals

2011 Goals

  • Assist the first groups of women in their transition to independent banking, providing them support and working with PostBank to ensure a mutually beneficial program.
  • Develop banking manual to serve as a written guideline for all WMI borrowers.
  • Develop additional businesses training modules for the women moving to independent banking.
  • Develop a community service organization for the women moving to independent banking so that they can start projects to support their local communities.
  • Explore holding an annual leadership meeting for key personnel in WMI's CBO partners who are managing the new village hub loan program.
  • Train at least 10 new trainers among the six (soon to be seven) village hub locations.
  • Develop accurate operating budgets for the new village hub locations.
  • Identify one new village hub location and partner CBO.
  • Continue discussions with partner bank candidates in Kenya.
  • Ship children's books to a community center supporting the Kenya loan programs.
  • Continue high school internship program.
  • Seek a grant to add solar power to the WMI building in Buyobo.
  • Expand the loan program quarterly, adding up to 40 borrowers per hub operation.
  • Expand speaking opportunities at high schools, colleges, and universities
  • Initiate a second woman's giving group.
  • Seek a part-time, US-based data manager for loan program information and operations.

2010 Goals and Achievements - See Annual Report

2009 Goals and Achievements - See Annual Report

2008 Goals and Achievements - See Annual Report

Long Term Goals

WMI's long-term goal is to transition borrowers into mainstream banking services, but with an innovative and unique twist. WMI harnesses the borrowers' combined success in the WMI loan program to command competitive terms, interest rates and convenient access to institutional banking services.

The disenfranchisement of women in rural areas from access to credit is a major impediment to sustained economic improvement for households in developing countries. It is extremely difficult for poor women to access services from institutional banks in the cities and towns throughout Uganda and other developing countries. Typically, they are excluded from access to financial services due to systemic reasons, such as: complicated paperwork, lack of collateral, demands for a male guaranty, unavailability of documents (such as citizenship documentation), unavailability or expense of transportation, and illiteracy.

WMI's long term goal is to remove these barriers through the women's own track record of hard work, business success and a 100% loan repayment rate in the WMI Loan Program. By giving the borrowers a chance to prove their bankability, WMI will be able to interest banks in penetrating the rural markets to obtain the customers that WMI has initiated, trained and educated. Because the WMI Loan Program participants will have developed successful businesses with WMI's support, financial institutions will be willing to develop a tailored transition program to accommodate WMI graduates in their customer base. It is a winning scenario for all stake-holders: WMI borrowers will be able to access convenient, diverse financial services, on attractive terms, to meet their growing business needs, the financial institution will obtain educated and successful new customers, and WMI will fulfill its mission of changing the face of poverty one loan at a time.