DEC MICRO CREDIT THE JOURNEY SO FAR

Since 1994, DEC Enugu has provided opportunity for women in the south East Nigeria to earn a living and improve their lives. DEC Microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in villages, slums, and neighborhoods where there is a lack of financial access. The institutions provide poor households with access to financial services, allowing them to borrow and save in reliable and convenient ways.
DEC Microfinance has a variety of financial services, such as credit insurance, savings, and remittances that are provided to poor entrepreneurs. The most well known form of microfinance is microcredit, small loans given to low-income entrepreneurs who lack the ability to receive loans from a formal bank.

How Did Micro-Credit Develop?
Modern microcredit originated in war-ravaged Bangladesh in the early 1970s. In 1971, Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan, but the damaged inflicted from war, along with the subsequent floods and famine, pushed Bangladesh into extreme poverty. In 1976, a professor named Muhammad Yunus, in response to the poverty engulfing the country, began to give small loans to the poor. Due to the lack of available resources, Muhammad Yunus provided loans using his own money, with the conviction that they would be repaid. To the surprise of others, the loans were repaid, and by 1983, the government registered the Grameen Foundation, Muhammad Yunus’s organization, as a formal bank.
As these new institutions emerged, it became clear that loans were only one financial service that poor individuals could benefit from. Access to formal savings increases household stability and allows safe holding liquid capital in poor households and communities. Insurance protects low-income farmers from floods, droughts, and other unexpected disasters. Remittances give individuals who have relocated the ability to pursue economic opportunities and send earnings home to family members. As the micro lending industry has developed and evolved, lending institutions have put together a collection of financial products in the aforementioned areas to better serve the needs of their clients as microfinance institutions offering a complete set of financial services.
With these developments, the current outlook for the microfinance sector is positive. Not only has the industry received worldwide recognition— the UN declared 2005 the year of Microfinance and in 2006 Muhammad Yunus received the Noble peace prize but also, the sector’s potential is bright. In 2004, the Social Enterprise Associates estimated the market demand for microfinance at 300 billion, of which only 30 billion has been met. There is no doubt that an industry which will increase by 270 billion dollars, or 1000%, will only grow in significance. And while the financial potential for microfinance is impressive, more importantly, microfinance has provided 750 million poor individuals with the tools to increase their income, create businesses, and improve the stability of their household.
As in Bangladesh in the 70s, the majority of DEC microcredit loans are, issued to women. DEC was initially drawn to lend to this segment of the population by witnessing the hard working women, with viable business ideas, that were excluded from the formal credit markets of commercial banks. It has since been found that women have statistically higher rates of repayment than men. Family connections and domestic responsibilities, as well as their close ties to social groups and the importance of societal norms and peer pressures in their daily lives, have been cited as major reasons why their repayment rates have consistently been higher. The combination of these factors makes women less likely to abscond with or misuse loan funds. The practice of extending credit to women has empowered females in poor households throughout the states of South East Nigeria.
Oluchi Amarube – DEC HOD, Administration

One of DEC Micro Credit Beneficiaries at Nsukka

Featured Recipients of DEC Micro Credit:
am Maria Ezema from Idi Opi in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State a member of one of DEC group - Uchechi Women Self Help Group 2 Idi, Opi. My husband is late and l have
four children. I joined DEC in 2009, after the community based mobilization and sensitization; I was then selling vegetables in the community

market (Afor Opi). I found it difficult then to train my children, I was always identified with the poor in the
community at a time my children became frustrated. But when l assessed DEC micro credit
in 2009 with N20,000, I changed from selling vegetables to yam, plantains, potatoes. I now travel to Abakaliki to buy yams. Since l started accessing DEC loan, the live of my children have greatly improved and there has been a great positive change in my family, my first son is now in the university while two of my children have almost finished their secondary education. With the help of DEC loan l was able to open a hair dressing saloon for my first daughter. From the profit from my business l was able to change the roof of my house from thatched to roofing sheet and my family can now feed three times a day

The Executive Director DEC with some of the Micro Credit Beneficiaries at Nkalaha in Ishielu L.G.A. Ebonyi State

My name is Mrs Anthonia Ogba a native of Awhum in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. I am a member of DEC Chukwubuike Self help Group 1. l have eight children, l joined DEC in 2006 after the inauguration of DEC programs in Awhum Community. I was then selling cooked grand pie (okpa) at Nkwo market, I hardly sleep because l have to wake up at 3:30 am every day to start the grand pie preparation and cooking. With my first loan of N10,000, I started selling plastic buckets, container etc at Biatra market at Awhum monastery. I am still selling the plastic till date and can comfortably pay my children’s school fees both those in the Universities and those still at secondary school level, take care of my family and assist my husband who has retired from civil service work. I advise and encourage women to access DEC loan which helped my business and family to bounce back to life