WOW scheme changing lives

The Women of Worth (WoW) microcredit scheme will be issuing loans to 500 eligible women this year, programme administrator Wemyss de Florimonte said in an interview on Monday.
De Florimonte said in excess of 2500 women have benefited from the initiative, since it was launched two years ago using approximately Gy$250 million of the Gy$500 million made available through the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI).  She disclosed women have been flocking to the ministry not only to solicit loans via the WoW initiative, but to share their success stories.

She related that one of them, a mother of six was on the verge of giving up her children after being strapped for cash, but she turned her life around after receiving a loan to the tune of Gy$250,000. The woman who hails from Moruca, Region One, after gaining access to the loan, expanded her cassareep business, repaying her loan within four months. Today, she happily lives with her children, who are all attending school, the programme administrator said.
“The ministry is extremely pleased with the amount of lives we have changed… many of their children have been able to go to school, many of them have elevated themselves,” de Florimonte  said.
Capitalising on the entrepreneurial training provided through the Human Services Ministry, many of the beneficiaries from across the country have successfully ventured into a wide cross-section of areas, ranging from agriculture to cosmetology.
“Almost anything that women can do, they do and they try their hands at and these are things that they have been doing for decades… We have so many cottage industries from bottled seasonings to bottled peppers, to hair dressing, to shop, to poultry, to cash crop farming, to even rice farming, to pig farming,” de Florimonte explained.
In 2013, de Florimonte expressed optimism that the trend of transformation and success will continue, as the Human Services Ministry and GBTI target an additional batch of 500 women, in particular those residing in Regions One and Seven. Although a few persons from Regions One and Seven have already benefitted from the WoW microcredit loan scheme, the programme was not officially introduced to the regions. As a result in June, the Human Services Ministry, in collaboration with GBTI, will launch the WoW initiative and subsequently in the month of August, it will be launched in Bartica, Region Seven.
Special emphasis on “mentoring and monitoring”
In addition to the disbursement of loans, de Florimonte said the ministry will be placing special emphasis on “mentoring and monitoring”. She explained that mentoring the recipients of loans is critical, since it equips them with the requisite skill and knowledge required to establish and maintain their businesses, noting that emphasis will be placed on packaging, marketing, and large-scale manufacturing.
On the other side, de Florimonte said monitoring is equally important “in terms of ensuring that they pay back their loans.”
According to the programme administrator, in Regions Two to Six, and Eight to 10, while most women are repaying their loans, there are several women who are failing to fulfill their obligations. This is a major problem, she posited, noting that the ministry and GBTI are taking corrective steps to rectify the situation.
In 2010, Human Services Ministry and GBTI launched the WoW microcredit loan scheme using Gy$500 million provided by the bank. The programme continues to target women from across the country, in particular single mothers. Women can borrow a minimum of Gy$100,000 and a maximum of Gy$250,000, with a repayment rate of six per cent per annum and a maximum repayment period of two years. Using the funds provided, beneficiaries can establish or expand their businesses.