Village Savings and Credit Schemes (VSCSs) were set up in 63 villages.
The total start-up fund was 315,000 Euro. By 2010, these village funds had yielded 84,000 Euro in
interest (returns over borrowing) and villagers also added 79,000 euro of their own savings. The total
fund now amounts to 478,000 Euro. The 63 VSCSs had 4,700 members of which 97 per cent were
women. The borrowing rate averaged 78 per cent of the total capital and the overall repayment rate
was 96 per cent. Most loans were used for income generation: to buy maize seed, small animals or for
small trading businesses. Progress with the development of secondary and tertiary credit associations
was slower and they were still not fully functional at project end