Dr. Jennifer Riria left a high-status career as a Kenyan university professor and an international civil servant with United Nations organizations to revive a floundering women's microfinance institution. She took on the task of raising funds, reorganizing the administration, re-building ties with international organizations and – most importantly – pushing out small loans to larger and larger numbers of rural and poor urban women. The Kenya Women's Finance Trust is now the largest micro-lending institution in the country, working with over 200,000 women last year alone. As CEO, Riria has pushed the organization into new areas, even as she has strengthened its fiscal base. In the few hours between flying into the country one afternoon and leaving again early the next morning, she squeezed out time to talk about the work.
A few years ago the Kenya Women's Finance Trust was losing nearly US $300,000 a year. What did you find when you took the helm?
I found an institution with two million dollars of uncollected debt. Offices closed. No operations. That's what I found. Nothing.
The institution had a very poor reputation among the funders and among government. And among the members, which was even worse. So we had to rebuild from scratch: building confidence with the clients; building confidence with the government; building confidences with the lenders. Because we were so "nothing" then, we had to rely on grants. And to get grants you needed to prove you can work. So that's how we began.
We began with 240,000 shillings from four foundations, and a grant for administration of $750,000 from the International Fund for Agricultural Development. And that's how we started.
We started cleaning, setting systems, articulating the mission of Kenya Women's Finance Trust. And now we are penetrating deep into rural areas, working with 200,000 women this year, managing 160,000 accounts. We're providing a variety of programs both for business and for empowerment of women. For example, loans for water tanks, for a garage, for a healthy women's fund – addressing all the issues that affect women's empowerment.
What motivated you to take the risky course of expanding – and expanding aggressively into the poorest rural areas – when you could have guaranteed slow, sustainable growth by consolidating your base in a smaller area and among women who were a bit less destitute?
Well, I think there are two drivers of this. One is my own personal zeal in the belief that if you don't empower women, then forget about all the rhetoric about poverty eradication. And about achieving the [United Nations] Millennium Goals. Forget it.
Because, really, the woman is the core. She holds us up. In Africa, you just have to deal with the issues that affect the productivity of women. They bring food to the table. They bring education to the household. They bring medical care in the household.
Ask me! I know it. I live among them. That is one of the drivers: my personal zeal. It is essential to support women, if we want to make a difference, if we want to transform the way the world works for them and their families.
The other driving force to this mission and the vision of the Women's Finance Trust is very specific. The institution lives to serve low-income women. And low income women are found in rural areas, and they are found in poor urban areas, and that is where we concentrate our operations.
Currently we are working with over 200,000. Every year some come into the program, some continue, and some go on [without our assistance]. We have touched over one million women in ten years. And when we say we touch women – multiply that by the average family size in the rural areas, which is six, If we are working with a million, we really are reaching six million mouths. That tripling effect of what we do with women is really significant.
What significant differences has the work made in the lives of the women to whom it lends?
Education for girls is one. Improved health for women is another. And improved living conditions. They will tell you that themselves, We also address environmental issues. If we provide more efficient, safer cooking methods, women don't go to cut the forest to use it as fire wood, and if the women and families do not inhale fumes from fires, then we are seeing a big change.
You need to tell the individual stories that represent and illustrate these changes.
Input assessments have been very difficult and very expensive. We actually made an informed decision and said, "The women have been telling us we've made a difference. We will not go to find out, mathematically, what a difference in percentages we have made in their lives."
It would be important for me to know, by the way! Don't mistake me. But it is not easy, and we will not spend that gross amount of money doing impact assessments. So if you documented this, it would be very useful and good for us! That would really be wonderful.
Another thing that would be really wonderful is this. We work with our women and they move on. They begin with very small loans, maybe $200. And they move on to $300. They move to $400. Now we have some with $1500, some with $3000 – that have come from 200 dollars! Now when people from the outside come to see these women, they say, "You are not working with poor people, you are working with rich people." But they have not seen where these women have come from, and they don't see that poverty is not just physical.
You know poverty has got so many dimensions. People need to see where these people came from, and what, in their situation, could still be considered as "poor." The World Bank uses complicated metrics to find that a woman is poor if she lives on two dollars a day.
Most of our clients are unable to spend a dollar a day. And they are looking after very many family members. Come talk to them yourself, and make a decision. What is Kenya Women's Finance Trust doing? What impact have we had? Because you can trace a client of ten years with us. We can give you that client to track. We have been unable to document that, because what we do is lending money. It would be wonderful to tell the stories of where they come from, what they see as their futures and where Kenya Women's Finance Trust has fit.
So what's next?
One of my biggest challenges is to move this institution to the next level. We plan to position ourselves in the market, because the competition is great. Banks have moved downstream to where we are operating, because they see that there is a lot of money to be made down the line, now that we have proven there is a market. They don't realize that for women to repay, there are so many things that we have to do together. However, they are there, and let them come. They are welcome, but we have to position ourselves so that we are not displaced – disenfranchised, as it were.
The other thing is that the institution has grown so much that we need affordable sources of funding. Borrowing from the banks, as we do now, to lend to the women, we pass all the cost to the women. We think that if we transformed and became regulated by the central bank, we will be able to attract shareholders, and that money will be a little cheaper than borrowing from the banks. The process of making preparations for regulation is a big challenge, because it is a very expensive activity. And, at the same time, I am running a full-time portfolio that must keep growing and keep on going. That is a big challenge, but we will see it through in another year.
You took on a pretty big challenge when you came to the Trust.
I joined Kenya Women's Finance Trust with no salary of my own. I've never looked back, and I have never regretted. Working with women is not just work; it is a mission. Don't ever try to work with women – and with disadvantaged women –if you are not called to serve.
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I love it. It tears open my perception, to women and to poor people. People are not poor because they are lazy. They are not poor because they are stupid. They are poor because they lack access. Access is the key word. And, for me, nothing stops at trying to make sure that they get access.
Another thing that I have learned is that poor people are not just about money. This applies to men, as well. It is not only women. A poor person wants to feel dignified. It is he or she who can transform their own life. Government can't. A person has to be put in position to access those resources that help them to transform their lives. Once I've assisted one person to transform their life – because I know that it is going to translate to so many benefits – I feel fulfilled.
The reward is to see the program grow and be national and be the largest micro-finance institution. We are also one of the "best-practice" advocates of Women's World Banking [[link]]. Women's World Banking has fifty advocates like us around the world; that is very satisfying for me.
One of my missions in life is to grow institutions, sustainable institutions that support development in the region. I have just founded the African Microfinance Action Forum. I have just registered it, because I believe in local institutions. Locally owned, locally driven institutions will be the solution in Africa – not multinational institutions coming in. Issues that affect people in Africa are addressed at UN forums, at World Bank forums.
They have their place. But the common people must have institutions that understand them, that drive issues that affect them as local people, as seen from within, not from outside. I believe in institutions Even when I move on, Kenya Women's Finance Trust should remain to serve women – now, and in the future and for future generations to come.
