Chilimba helping to turn tables

By ANN ZULU

WOMEN in Zambia are still considered as dependants, but a group of 10 women in Lusaka’s Kanyama compound are turning the tables to disapprove the suppressive stereotypes which have kept many of them from owning or inheriting land and property.

These women are breaking the cultural syndrome through table banking, commonly known as ‘‘Chilimba’’, a way to access and offer loans without going through a microfinance organisation.

According to a member of the group Nancy Bwalya, the group was formed in 2015.

Mrs Bwalya told the this reporter that the group has greatly boosted her social and economic well-being.

“I remember when I joined the group I took a loan of K5,000 and started my own business of selling second hand clothes. Since then, my business has been booming and I no longer depend on my husband to provide everything I need. We no longer have misunderstandings with my husband,” Mrs Bwalya said.

Another member of the group Betty Mwila agreed with her colleague, saying she has also greatly benefited from the Chilimba group.

“It is very difficult to ask for money from your husband to start up a business and help to cater for the needs of the family. You do not even know where to start from because most men are greedy when it comes to money, sometimes they even become violent,” Mrs Mwila said.

Mrs Mwila has invested in vegetable farming after receiving a K5,000 loan from the group.

She uses her profits to boost her savings and hopes to be able to take a bigger loan to buy a piece of land for her farming.

“My only wish right now is to borrow a bigger amount from a bank and buy land I can use for my farming,” she said.

‘‘Chilimba’’ literally means grasping a bundle of money which has been collected from members of an organised group.

The strategy of ‘‘Chilimba’’ involves members meeting monthly at an agreed location and tabling their contributions, which are referred to as shares.

But unlike the conventional practice of taking the collections to the bank, the members share out the money depending on the number of shares each has and financial need.

And group chairperson Namakau Mwiinga said trust, openness and honesty was vital in a Chilimba group.

“We know each other very well, that is why it is so easy for us to form the group and become each other’s guarantor. This is important because we have no other security for the loans except how well we know each other,” Mrs Mwiinga said.

Zambia is largely a patriarchal society where women are denied access to land, which serves as the major tangible and valuable asset in securing any long term development loan.

Despite existing legislation outlawing any form of discrimination against women, the social and cultural structures have for years been used as a yardstick to determine the place of a woman in society.

So when Mrs Mwiinga thinks about where she has come from and where she is going, she is happy to be a member of the Chilimba group.

“My life has changed.  I am now able to support my husband in paying school fees for our children. We are at peace with each other unlike before.

“My husband no longer worries about small things like sugar, or salt. He is happy that I joined the group,” Mrs Mwiinga said.

She adds that she would like to buy a two-acre piece of land to build rental houses as her long term plan to break the family from the chains of poverty.

“We have a small plot and whatever we grow is not enough for home consumption and sale. That is why my aim is to increase my shares to a level that I can take a huge loan to invest in more profitable business ventures,” she said.

The loans acquired through Chilimba are repaid at a minimal interest rate compared to the banks’ interest rates which exceed 40 percent in some cases.

As a rule, members know where each one lives, as the rotating monthly meetings are carried out in the homesteads.

This makes it easy for the members to trace loan defaulters.

In some of the groups, household property such as chairs, cooking utensils and television sets are attached to the loan as security.

A member who is unable to repay the loan within the set time limit is required to notify the group so that she can either be assisted or the period extended.

In extreme cases, where a member deliberately ignores informing the group or does not repay the loan, members are forced to take away the household property.

Even as women find ways of empowering themselves economically, Government, development partners and other stakeholders still have a lot to do to eliminate the barriers that perpetuate gender discrimination in accessing resources.