AWC founder Jacqueline Malomba has a strong background (over 20 years) in banking and entrepreneurship capacity building. Her objective was to economically empower grassroots women entrepreneurs in Kenya — by helping them form and register table-banking (TB) groups, helping them to create revolving funds, and enhancing their capacity through training and capacity-building workshops — to advance the socio-economic well-being of these women.
AWC & TABLE BANKING
WHAT IS TABLE BANKING?
Table banking is a group-based funding concept where members form a group of up to 15 individuals who meet weekly and make weekly savings to form a kitty from which members can borrow. Each member’s contributions are recorded in her passbook and referred to as her share. This group funding strategy allows members to save and borrow immediately either as a short-term or long-term loan.
Since its inception, AWC has mobilized and helped hundreds of women-led small businesses in western Kenya and Nairobi. The characteristic of these women is that they do not have the collateral to access institutional finance. Therefore, through AWC, the women are organized into TB groups and are supported with the necessary table banking skills and training to help them access to finance to fund their business activities as well as fight poverty and stay financially sound.
Through the table banking concept, AWC has helped hundreds of women-led businesses enhance their operational capacity. We have built skills and helped create profitable connections for women and women-led businesses to help achieve sustainable development goals.
Even though we have a presence both in Nairobi and Western Kenya, we have a more robust footprint in the western Kenya counties of Bungoma and Kakamega.
At present, AWC has a membership of a total of 65 TB women groups (15 in Nairobi, 34 in Bungoma, and 16 in Kakamega) comprising a total of 975 women small-business owners.
The principal AWC objective is to enhance the capacity of women table-banking (TB) groups in western Kenya counties, through intensive training on best practices during the post covid 19 period.
AWC envisages that the Capacity Building initiatives will:
- Help the grassroots women entrepreneurs access digital literacy skills to help them either move their businesses online or use online platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.) to expand their business clientele.
- Help equip the TB groups with money/financial management skills that will help them look out for investment opportunities for excess or idle funds.
- To help the TB groups develop short-term and long-term strategic plans and to restore confidence in each group member to take leadership in the midst of adversity as well as gain 100% commitment for the group growth from each TB group member.
- Finally, we do not only seek to build skills and knowledge but also build relationships, values, and attitudes, among many other winning character attributes, to deliver even and reliable benefits to members.
The capacity building is run through workshops. The workshops are organized under four thematic areas.
The four thematic sessions are designed to showcase good practices in:
- Promoting good leadership skills
- Promoting strategic planning skills
- Basic investment and financial management skills
- Adopting digital tools for business growth