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Presidential
Trust Fund for Self-Reliance (PTF) supported microfinance
program in Tanzania, was established at the initiative
of the Government of Tanzania in 1984. It was
incorporated as a trust fund in 1988, with a mission
to create employment and increase income of disadvantaged
people, women and youth, who constituted majority
of the active population of the country. The main
program activities of PTF are provision of credit,
savings mobilization and business skills training
for sustainable development of poor communities.
PTF has received both the start up and scaling
up support from Grameen Trust.
Although
PTF has a mandate to operate throughout Tanzania,
it is currently operating in three regions, including
Dar Es Salaam, the Coast and Morogoro. The credit
program of PTF uses Grameen solidarity lending
approach to target economically active poor in
rural and semi urban areas. The program operates
through five branches and provides loans for service,
trading, small-scale industries, livestock and
horticulture. PTF members began diversifying their
activities once they received second or subsequent
loans.
PTF
has witnessed a slow, but very steady growth,
with excellence performance. The total outreach
as of April 2002 was 13,302 members, of whom 94%
are women. The total amount disbursed by the project
is US$ 5,615,126. The amount saved in their group
fund is US$ 553, 250. PTF's repayment rate has
been consistenly 98% and the portfolio at risk
rate is just 0.5%. According to Joyce Hamisi,
Executive Director of PTF, the main reasons for
such high repayment rate are community participation
in program activities, training, discipline among
clients and PTF credit officers, and a transparent
and simple credit system.
PTF
also focuses strongly on client training. Like
other Grameen type programs, PTF provides compulsory
seven-day pre loan training to clients. However,
they also offer business management skills training
and entrepreneurial skills training, which have
contributed to building awareness and improving
business skills among members.
Increasingly,
group and center leaders who are members of PTF,
are also handling some of the duties of the loan
program, such as cash handling and posting of
weekly forms. This has enabled the staff of PTF
to efficiently handle at least 300 clients each.
PTF also encourages clients to do evaluation seminars
at the end of each loan cycle to review their
performance. Members also organize exchange visits
between centers to
learn from each other and promote business opportunities
among themselves.
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