KWFT revolutionizes house financing for Kenyan poor
Kenya Women Microfinance Bank (KWFT) a Kenyan microfinance bank is revolutionizing the way women on low incomes can access funds to build and improve their homes in rural areas.
Kenya Women Microfinance Bank (KWFT) a Kenyan microfinance bank is revolutionizing the way women on low incomes can access funds to build and improve their homes in rural areas. KWFT has taken a different approach to home ownership financing in pursuit of increasing home ownership in the country especially to the rural poor. Once the loan is approved, the bank disburses this loan in phases in tandem with construction phases to avoid funds diversion summing up to USD 10,000 for construction of all or part of a house and repayable over a maximum of three years.
Kenya has a population of about 50m with just about 30,000 mortgage account according to official statistics main hindrance being informal land ownership specifically in rural areas hence the property cannot be used as collateral to secure funding and prospective borrowers usually have few other assets to use as collateral.
KWFT is the largest women’s bank in Africa, with deep penetration into remote, rural and peri-urban areas. Nordic Microfinance Initiative has an equity investment in KWFT since 2014.
Below is the link to Financial Times press article about this loan product:
