To Bamboo Micro Credit, each recipient of a micro loan is seen as a small project in its own right. We take this approach because of the philosophy behind interest-free micro lending. Bamboo is a not for profit organisation. We don’t charge interest on our loans because we are not in the business of making a profit out of lending. Instead, Bamboo aims to help each loan customer use funds to lift themselves out of poverty, and to make a better life for themselves.
We take great pride in knowing a little bit about each person’s story. Their background, their situation, and their business vision are all important to us. That’s why we treat each loan beneficiary as a project. It’s one of the reasons as to why we have such a phenomenal success record when it comes to the repayment of our loans.
Some of our successful projects to date include the establishment of the following:
- The purchase of materials for weaving songkat, a woven cloth used for ceremonial garments that requires the use of gold thread.
- Setting up a small village warung or shop.
- Buying stock for a CD seller in a local market.
- The repair of a small truck for family and local community use.
- The purchase of a sewing machine to make cloth garments for sale at the local market.
- The production of low cost, affordable mosquito nets.
- Financing the setting up of a chicken farm.
Where possible, Bamboo looks for business ideas that look to meet a local demand. The best projects are those that aim to produce immediate financial returns with minimal set-up costs.
By keeping business project ideas relatively simple, it becomes easier to help those borrowers with minimal education and skills. Bamboo’s assessment process weighs up an applicant’s financial history, their assets and income, and the perceived viability of the proposed business.
Bamboo understands that it operates in Indonesia to serve those potential borrowers who would otherwise be unable to obtain a traditional loan from a bank, and who might be tempted to risk obtaining funds from loan sharks and swindlers.
By viewing each loan borrowing as a project, Bamboo is able to monitor progress and success, and is able to offer flexibility where financial elasticity is more useful than heavy-handedness and the burden of growing debt.
Bamboo Micro Credit – It’s not a handout … it’s a hand up.