The Kitale Community Pool lends to small businesses in the Kitale area of Uganda.
The Pool Manager, Mr Ausicery Jean, has been lending successfully in his local community for over 8 years to help fund the Kitale Community School. He has an outstanding track record, experiencing zero defaults to date. The Pool Manager’s approach is facilitated by four key principles: (1) collateral taken for every loan, (2) affordable rates for borrowers, (3) clear and understandable business cases from each borrower, and (4) familiarity with borrowers based on long-term relationships.
Prospective borrowers in the Kitale region have difficulty accessing capital from banks and microfinance firms. In the very few cases that these borrowers can access loans from banks, predominantly based in towns and cities far removed from the Kitale community, the rates offered are significantly higher than the rates available from the Kitale Community Pool. The aim of the pool is therefore to offer more affordable rates than available elsewhere in the region, meaning that the end borrower can retain and reinvest a greater amount of profit generated from their business.
The Pool Manager selects the most promising businesses in the Kitale community based on their growth potential and their ability to facilitate job creation in the local area. Businesses selected to receive loans will have sound financial fundamentals, have demonstrated long term, sustainable performance or will be owned or managed by individuals with a strong commercial track record. The Pool Manager takes security and personal guarantees from the business owners, with the security normally comprising the deed of the business owner’s property.
A significant proportion of loans issued by the Kitale Community Pool will be to agricultural businesses that require finance to irrigate, fertilise and insure their crops. Any loans to agricultural businesses will be issued with crop insurance if not already in place, so that in the event of a crop failure the outstanding debt will be repaid via the insurance policy.
A proportion of the Pool Manager profits will be used to contribute to the running costs of the Kitale Community School.