The Women Empowerment Platform {WEP} is an App that ensures the seamless management of self-help groups activities and their financial records at the comfort of their mobile handsets.
In the Kenyan society settings, the rural woman is not highly regarded, is mostly illiterate and undergoes hardships in accessing friendly financial solutions. The obstacles the rural women are struggling to overcome sometimes act as additional stumbling blocks on the path to self-sufficiency and leave them vulnerable to exploitation and poverty. This greatly impacts their lives and reduces their chances at getting economic stability. They are exposed to the harsh realities of life and have no protection from everyday mistreatment and disasters like the Covid-19, HIV-Aids to mention a few. Social protection and financial schemes have rarely reached rural women as they are outside the realm of those targeted by social protection services.
The liberation of rural women has been made possible through the formation of self-help groups that majorly contribute money and support each individual on a ‘merry go round’ basis. The savings circulate among members through different ways and return to members in credit or savings with interest giving them access to affordable capital to grow their small businesses and become financially resilient. Some of the challenges these groups face include but limited to the following:
- Poor systems of managing group finances
- Not able to access financing provided by government
- Poor business skills
- No access to small grants available for women entrepreneurs
- No formal credit history available to necessitate growth
Nascent Prospects identified these unmet needs and spearheaded the development of this innovative software application (Women Empowerment Platform) that offers efficient financial management for groups among other key services.
