The program has been operating here the longest and the businesses are the very successful and diverse. The CAV office is located on a newly paved road to the new airport. CAV Rwanda has also been certified by the Government and escrow funds that were required for a mandatory probationary. Rwanda’s established banks ^{produce an overall repayment of 97%}.

                    DUSANGIRE KWIZERA

Portraits of Success: Two Women in Kigali

Mrs. MUKANKURANGA Ildegonde also lives in Kicukiro and has worked with ABIZERANYE Bank for two years. Ildegonde’s store is located less than 100 meters from Colette Mukamurenzi’s, but she indicates that there is no competition between them. Mrs. Mukankuranga’s store sells an expansive list of items - food (vegetables, meat and fish), cold drinks (soda, milk, beer, water), dry goods (sugar, flour), toiletries (toothpaste, soap), and even non-necessity items like sandals. She rents her small store building for 12,000 Frw/month, and has a refrigerator for cold foods. Ildegonde claims three secrets to her success: (1) savings, (2) good relationships with her customers, and (3) giving credit accounts.

During the last lending cycle, Ildegonde started with 83,000 Frw and has saved 100,000 Frw (approximately $250 US). She used her savings to buy a color TV for her family. Ildegonde’s business difficulties have included a robbery; someone recently broke into her store and stole 84,000 Frw. She notes that there are two types of individuals who are unable to repay their loans: first, those with legitimate tragedies (like hers and Colette’s), with whom the other bank members sympathize; second, those who are not as committed to the hard work as the others. Mrs. Mukankuranga says that her bank has expelled four women for the latter reason over the past two years (evaluations occur at the end of each repayment cycle), which have been the hardest decisions the bank has had to make.

Mrs. MUKAMURENZI Colette has worked for two years with ABIZERANYE (“Those who trust each other”) bank. Mrs. Mukamurenzi owns a store in Kicukiro (a district in Kigali) selling cold drinks (soda, milk, beer, mineral water), dry goods (sugar, flour), food (eggs, bread), soap, and other daily use items. During the first year of the store, she rented a spot in the market; this year she began renting a small store building near her house for 10,000 Frw/month. (By comparison, she buys soda in bulk for 105 Frw/each and sells soda at 130 Frw/each.) What makes Colette’s business unique? Mrs. Mukamurenzi provides credit accounts to her regular customers, who pay their bills on the 15th and 30th of each month.

She has been quite successful. She began this cycle in February 2002 borrowing 83,000 Frw capital, and had saved 105,000 Frw (10% of her earnings) by June. Difficulties: Mrs. Mukamurenzi used all her savings when one of her children was very sick. Sadly, the child died 27 July 2002, and the store has not been fully operational as the family is in mourning.

In the future, Mrs. Mukamurenzi hopes to buy her own store in order to avoid the high cost of rent, and emphasizes the advantage of increasing the initial capital available (up to $100 US) to give even greater returns on the loans.