Borrowing heavily from the Grameen model, the objective of this scheme was to improve the economic base and overall socio-economic conditions of disadvantaged women and their families.
Fully funded by the IILD, the scheme provided interest-free loans to women in two local communities (Karamajiji and Waru) on the outskirts of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. These loans had extended, easy repayment schedules and were administered and managed in supported groups that promoted knowledge sharing, learning and accountability.
An extensive evaluation framework was developed to learn if, and how, these loans improved lives and the best methods for scaling up and replication. The important lessons learned have been taken forward to the design of interventions under the microfinance platform of the Trade Health Education and Microfinance Programme (THEMP).