- Loan Successfully Funded On 11 Feb 2022 and Fully Repaid
Micro-financing for SMEs & Individuals in Narok, Kenya (partial repaid plus new loan)
EP Capital
- Narok, Kenya
Menu
- 121,750 AUD
Loan has been fully repaid
EP Capital provides affordable micro-financing to remote businesses and communities in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya, enabling people to manage their cash flows more evenly, helping them to pay for housing, health and education. EP Capital’s interest rates are much lower than those charged by established lenders in the region, and it uses a significant percentage of its profits to fund its Foundation, Tumaini Bora Africa, that supports community development projects for the Maasai community.
- 8 Lenders
Committed
- 12 months
Loan Period
- 8%
Interest Rate
- BACKGROUND
Loan summary
EP Capital’s mission is to disrupt conventional micro lending practices by removing the need for sophisticated collateral requirements and reaching out to the unbanked, underbanked and those who are not deemed to qualify for traditional loans in rural Kenya. At EP Capital, micro-credit is used as a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socio-economic conditions of the poor and of SMEs that have been kept outside mainstream banking and traditional micro lending circles.
This loan will enable EP Capital to more consistently fund small businesses and provide micro loans to individuals to help them earn a better quality life. The loan will also enable EP Capital to use more of its retained working capital to help it to grow its team and build its systems.
Borrower's mission
So far, EP Capital has trained and advanced loans to 68 poor widows to start businesses around the Maasai Mara International Reserve gates and gift shops in the camps and hotels. The women are now earning a living. EP Capital has also loaned over 100 individuals school fees for their children to be in school. Over 100 businesses have been funded and are thriving. Positive impact on its poor borrowers is evident in the growth of businesses in the Maasai Mara ecosystems.
The long term impact is about scaling what has been achieved so far by changing the micro lending industry in the region, ensuring loan costs reduce significantly, loan turn around times are reduced, the “unqualified” can also access credit, and inequality is reduced. EP Capital aspires to be the leading, affordable, accessible funding partner to individuals and SMEs in the region.
The activities funded by this loan are helping to achieve the above Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN.
Intermediary's experience with impact enterprises
For more than 8 years, Red Hat Impact has helped impact enterprises by raising capital and providing other kinds of business and strategy support. We have raised more than $3M from our network of impact investors, and loaned this capital to support 30 enterprises. We use a crowd-lending model to raise loan capital. As of May 2024, we maintain a 98% success rate on loan repayment. We establish close working relationships with all of the impact enterprises we raise debt capital for, and co-manage risks with them during the loan term.
- IMPACT
Impacts and how they are measured
The loan will help EP Capital to create more social impact along the same lines of what it has been able to achieve so far but at a larger scale. The key social impact is about enabling access to micro finance to those who otherwise cannot. An expanded team of field officers will help more people in the region to access finance at their doorstep, as the nearest big town is over 2 hours drive away. With a focus on providing micro loans to conservancies and SMEs, EP Capital enables families and individuals to trade and fund housing, heath and education. EP Capital will advance more loans to struggling, thriving and scaling businesses to help them expand their operations. They will be able to empower more poor rural widows and women to venture into small handcraft businesses. The returns generated from the micro-loans facilitated by this loan will also enable EP Capital to employ more staff (1-2 more field officers), creating some more much needed employment. EP Capital can readily quantify, measure and track our access to finance impact. They can also measure the impacts we deliver through their Foundation (see below). EP Capital is working with Red Hat Impact to explore how we could deepen our impact measurement.
Ready to lend?
This loan is not currently accepting subscriptions, but we invite you to check out some of the other live loans on the platform. In order to participate in loans you must be a registered lender on the LendForGood platform. If this is your first time lending with us we’ll guide you through the process to first get registered. Thank you for lending your passion!