Friday, March 29, 2024

Silk Scheme – The Only Solution For Marketeers and The Informal Sector

Share

It’s not always that solutions will lie in other countries who were in a similar situation and have changed it or are changing it. Sometimes better solutions lie in our communities right here at home. That is why before the government can look elsewhere, they need to take surveys within local communities to try and find out if there are working solutions being implemented on a small scale.

It’s human nature to always strive to find solutions to our problems. We live in a country where interest rates from banks are high for most SMEs to cope with. This creates a barrier for people having SMEs to access the much needed capital to enable them to graduate from one level to another. With so many requirements, restrictions and paper work, banks are perceived to be nightmares for most informal businesses and service providers, more especially people with little or no education.

This however hasn’t stopped people affected by this situation from looking for solutions to their problems. In my normal routines of trying to find practical solutions to problems which communities are facing, I found out that one of the most successful programs offering loan schemes and savings is the Silk Program. This program is well known in communities and more prevalent among women doing business. It has improved a lot businesses of participants and testimonies are everywhere. If this program was to be adopted and implemented at a national scale, it would change a lot of people’s lives and would stand to be the best tool to fight poverty in our communities for the informal sector.

How the program works.

TRAINING
Unlike banks, whenever a group of women want to start the silk program, they hire a specialist to teach them how the whole program works. The teacher gives them all the information they need, from saving to loaning and annual cash outs. They monitor the program throughout the year and assists participants in terms of sharing the money at the end of the yeah. The program is very simple because unlike banks, you don’t need passport sized photos, a recommendation from anywhere, affidavit and all the unnecessary requirements which banks ask for.

LEDGER BOOK
There is a ledger book which is very well documented where all the activities are recorded. All the savings, loans, loan payments and balances are recorded in the ledger book.

SAVINGS
The Silk program starts with savings, everyone plegdes the amount they will be saving every after 7 days according to their capacity. Every after 7 days the beneficiaries gather and cash in their savings. This money never goes to the bank, it remains with a designated individual from the group.

LOANS
The way the loan scheme is is that you cannot get more than you have served. So if you want to get a bigger loan, then you need to serve more. After assembling and cashing in, anyone who wants to get a loan is given an opportunity to do so.

INTEREST
When someone gets a loan, the money is returned with an interest. The interest is a percentage which is agreed upon by the members according to their capacity. It’s usually not big. The interets paid by the people getting loads adds to the money which is shared at the end of the year.

CASH OUTS
After savings have been made and loans have been paid, every year, the beneficiaries do what is called the cash out. This is simply withdrawing all the money and then starting the program afresh. This gives a chance to the members to remove those participants who had been problematic either by not submitting savings or not returning loaned money.

CONCLUSION
This program is not a theory but is providing practical solutions in our communities. I recommend that the government, local leaders and private institutions take keen interest in the program.

By David Chishimba
Association Of Unemployed Youths President.

1 COMMENT

  1. We cant run Coops and now a silk scheme ??
    Too many sticky fingers around these days
    While the idea may be good it wont work with the culture we have at the moment

    1
    1

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading