Working together on
microfinance and microinsurance
microfinance and microinsurance
In the slums of Manila, just outside Quezon City, a special group of people meets every week: Sitcho Ibajo, a savings group with as many as 60 members. Except for a few men, it is mostly driven women entrepreneurs who build their business through this group. Their key to success? Access to credit through K-Coop, a savings and credit cooperative with 50,000 members and partner of BRS since 2023.
During a working visit with a focus on digitisation, the BRS/KBC team attended a meeting of Sitcho Ibajo. Members save together and thereby gain access to small loans - around $250 on average - to purchase stock, fabric or leather, for example. For many, this is the difference between dreaming and doing.
The group is led by a management committee that ensures that all loans are properly registered and repaid. Today, this is still done with savings books, but K-Coop is in the midst of a digital transition. Their new platform, (my) K-Coins, will soon make saving and loans even easier.
Savings groups are more than a financial solution. They create a network in which members support each other and grow together. During our visit, we saw proud entrepreneurs neatly repaying their loans and talking passionately about their business.
For example, Garcia Jennie shares her story: once working in a leather factory, today she runs her own sewing business and makes clothes from synthetic leather. Even more proudly, she tells us that her five children have all graduated by now.
Cooperation works. Thanks to savings groups and cooperatives like K-Coop, enterprising women in Manila have opportunities to shape their future themselves - and that is exactly what BRS stands for.
