Village Enterprise Fund

Our Program
What We Do

We combine education, financing and mentoring to create sustainable income-generating businesses.

Business training empowers groups of five or more people to select, create and operate a small business. It covers:

Assessing the market for the product or service
Marketing skills
Re-investing profits for growth
Basic recordkeeping
Group dynamics and decision making
Confidence building

Seed capital grants of $100 or $150 go to trained groups with approved grant applications. We provide grants in two installments. The first $50 or $100 (depending on the type of business) gets the operation up and running. The balance ($50) follows approval of a progress report that shows several months of revenues and profits. Rural start-up businesses include:

Agriculture (maize, cassava, tomatoes, peanuts)
Animal husbandry (goats, chickens, pigs)
Skilled service and construction (tailoring, carpentry, welding, bicycle repair)
Retail (vegetable kiosks, restaurants and cafes, household goods)

On-going mentoring provides personalized advice and encouragement for at least one year. This coaching helps new entrepreneurs gain confidence, overcome the typical challenges of a new venture, understand local market opportunities, become self-sufficient and grow their businesses.

Empowerment grants ($300) go to our most successful entrepreneurs. These incremental investments take an existing business to a new level. They facilitate additions of employees, branch office openings, acquisitions of capital equipment and inventory expansion.

Learn about how we work »