Micro-Credit leads to community improvements!

When Mr Shamaki Bello was installed District Head of Daddu District, his wife (the Gimbiya) suggested that the women should be mobilized into self help. Each woman was asked to contribute N20 per week, but Gimbiya Fatu soon noticed that some women were unable to pay the N20 because they were not engaged in any income generating activities. She discussed this with her husband, and he set about looking for opportunities to empower the Daddu women. It was at this point that he came in contact with Fantsuam Foundation. Fantsuam began work in Daddu District in 2004, and this was one of the first centres where the funds received from Partners for Development (PfD) were deployed.

Fantsuam Foundation’s mission is the elimination of poverty through integrated development programs, and this was precisely what Mr. Bello wanted for Daddu women. So a microfinance program was instituted for Daddu women, and this simple beginning of N5,000 microloans to the first 100 women in Daddu was the beginning of an economic revolution in Daddu District. The women went on to receive loans in the second and third cycles, N10,000 and N20,000 each respectively. At the end of the N20,000 loan cycle, the women decided that they had made enough savings and wanted to take a break from receiving any further loans. A total of N1,750,000 had been disbursed at Daddu from the microfinance program of PfD.

Mr. Bello, “My women decided to invest the profits of their microfinance businesses to set up two projects in Daddu District: The Community Hall and an orphanage.” The women bought a piece of land for N40,000 and went on to buy building materials of N160,000 to make the foundation of the Daddu Town Hall. The community was mobilized to construct the building and raised a further N500,000 at its official launch.

“This singular dedication of the women to these projects is the genesis of the new edifice in Daddu: a Town Hall that is the pride of the entire district.”