Introducing HOFOKAM!
7 June 2010 at 04:33 Drew Loizeaux 4 comments
By Drew Loizeaux, KF11, Uganda
I’m pleased to introduce HOFOKAM to the Kiva community. HOFOKAM is based out of Fort Portal, Uganda and maintains four branch offices that serve over 15,000 clients. HOFOKAM focuses most of its efforts on serving rural clients in the western part of the country.
Hofokam's Headquarters
Originally three different organizations, HOFOKAM was formed in 2003 by the merging of separate projects of the Catholic Dioceses from Fort Portal, Hoima and Kaseese. In addition, HOFOKAM receives funding and support through a partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Though HOFOKAM has many loan products its two main offerings are village bank and solidarity group loans. In addition to these loan products, HOFOKAM has also created several specific products to meet the needs of their clients such as agriculture loans, school fee loans and solar loans.
Andrew and Helen uploading borrower profiles to Kiva
Though I’ve only been here a week, I have been overwhelmed by the staff’s dedication, not only to HOFOKAM mission, but to the partnership with Kiva as well. HOFOKAM is currently a pilot partner and they are working extremely hard to complete the necessary steps to reach an active partnership. I am excited to be at here for the next few months as the partnership develops and I am looking forward to providing updates on our efforts along the way.
Fort Portal, HOFOKAM base of operations, is a regional trading hub with a population of around 40,000 people. The market pulls in traders from as far as the Democratic Republic Congo on a regular basis and is the heart of the city. Fort Portal is nestled at the base of the Rwenzori Mountains and is surrounded by several national parks.
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Do you want to support HOFOKAM?
Help fund one of their clients here and join their newly formed fan page here.
Drew Loizeaux arrived a week ago at HOFOKAM in Fort Portal, Uganda. This is his third placement, previously serving in KF7-Cambodia and the KF8-Philippines.
Entry filed under: KF11 (Kiva Fellows 11th Class), Uganda. Tags: Fort Portal, KF11, Kiva, Kiva Fellows, microcredit, microfinance, Uganda.
1. Shiraz | 21 October 2010 at 09:51
I do not see a lot of loans made to borrowers particularly women in the Fort Portal area. I know a group that is interested in lending to women in the Toro district. Please reply or give me an email address so we can discuss this matter further
2. Asha | 29 June 2010 at 09:11
Hi there,
I am interested in learning more about youth serving MFIs and SACCOs in Uganda. I have a few questions about Hofokam:
- What (if any)savings and credit products are made available to youth?
- How long have youth had access to funds via Hofokam?
- Is there a disaggregated youth client portfolio (how many youth accessed funds by gender? By age?) you can share?
- What were the savings and credit criteria for youth in the program?
Finally, if you are aware of other youth serving MFIs and/or SACCOs in Uganda, I’d welcome the information.
Many thanks.
3. Drew Loizeaux | 8 June 2010 at 03:11
Thanks Jeff – I must start by saying that at each microfinance institution there will be different details and different products may be called different things. However, at HOFOKOAM there are a few key differences that I can highlight real quickly. First, Solidarity loans usually have a maximum of 5 people while Village Bank loans must have at least 5. The second key difference is that an individual in a solidarity loan may take a new loan whenever they have paid back their current one while a Village Bank member must wait for the entire group. Thanks for the question, I think this is an important topic and will address it more fully in my next blog post.
4. Jeff | 7 June 2010 at 05:03
Perhaps you could explain “village bank and solidarity group loans”. What are their main features and how do they differ.